A new case of institutional betrayal comes to light at the Chikkamagaluru branch of Central Bank of India – where employees were allegedly orchestrating a massive "Gold Golmaal." Bank officials allegedly extracted customers’ original gold ornaments over five years, swapping them for counterfeit jewelry, and embezzling Fixed Deposits (FDs) in a scandal that has left dozens of families devastated.
The scam, reportedly occurring from 2020 to 2025, has sparked a huge outcry that led victims to storm the bank's Regional Office in Bengaluru today, calling for the immediate return of their assets.
An elaborate web of deceit
The accusations indicate a calculated criminal operation within the branch. Based on the police complaint which was made at the Chikkamagaluru Town Police Station, members of the accused are Sandeep (Branch Manager), one former clerk named Narayanaswamy, and three others. The victims and investigators spoke of a plan in layman terms on how the scam would get started at:
- The "Switch" Scam: Customers who pledged original gold for loans discovered that real ornaments had been sold or pledged somewhere else; "dummy" or gold-plated copies were stored in the bank’s lockers to deceive auditors.
- Deceased Loans: At its most gruesome, staff reportedly reused the papers of deceased customers to approve new gold loans which they then pocketed.
- Identity theft & external pledges: Applying the KYC documents of bank customers in full, the staff reportedly borrowed new money from other banks and private gold loan companies, as well by using customers' stolen gold.
- FD Diversion: Thousands of rupees were allegedly moved from customers’ Fixed Deposit accounts to private accounts maintained by the accused or their relatives.
The Whistleblower’s Revelation
The scandal took an abrupt turn for the worse when Narayanaswamy, a branch clerk at the branch, emerged to the public with a confession to the scheme. The original gold available for customers 80 grams to more than 140 grams per customer, he claimed had been transferred to other financial institutions in order to obtain larger loans for personal use of the staff. Narayanaswamy says he is shedding light on "the truth" but is also a main suspect in the police case continuing.
Bengaluru Victims Call for Justice
For over four years, many customers who had paid off their loans had been turned away by bank employees with excuses for a lack of service when they requested their jewelry returned. Frustrated, a large group of farmers and local citizens from Chikkamagaluru staged a mass protest by protesting outside the Bengaluru Regional Head Office.
“We had trust in a nationalized bank with our family’s heritage,” said one protester who pledged 142 grams of gold. “We have repaid every rupee of the loan but now they are telling us our gold isn’t there or that it’s fake. We will not depart until we get back our gold.”
Current Status
The Chikkamagaluru police have duly registered a formal FIR, with ongoing investigations into its locker records. Senior officials of the Central Bank of India have pledged an internal inquiry, yet for the victims the wait for their "missing" gold has proven a traumatic ordeal.
