SEVEN people, including a factory owner, have been arrested for allegedly using fake jewellery to secure loans totalling 250mil rupees (RM10.5mil) from a bank in India, Makkal Osai reported.
The fraud came to light when a private bank in Maharashtra conducted a routine audit of gold jewellery kept as collateral after irregularities were detected in one account.
Auditors became suspicious of the weight and purity of the gold, prompting the bank to examine 152 accounts across nine of its branches in Nagpur district where gold jewellery had been pledged as collateral for loans.
The audit found that 38 loans had been disbursed to different individuals using fake jewellery as collateral.
The bank subsequently lodged a police report.
Investigations found that the owner of a metal recycling factory had allegedly used the identity documents of friends, relatives and former employees without their consent to obtain the fraudulent loans.
Police have arrested seven people to assist in the investigation.
(The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.)
