AHMED ALI FAYYAZ
SRINAGAR: Gold ornaments valued at Rs 85 lakh, mortgaged for a loan by a customer, are missing from HDFC Bank’s Rajbagh branch in the summer capital.
Insiders revealed to STATE TIMES that sometime back a customer had drawn loan from the bank against the gold that had been valuated, mortgaged and deposited in the Rajbagh branch. During the over four-month-long shutdown and curfew, when only a small number of the employees turned up for duty at banks, the gold deposit has disappeared in mysterious circumstances.
It was not immediately clear whether the gold had been stolen from a locker or from custody of an individual official.
Sources said that the branch head Saba Saleem has reported the “theft” to the senior officers and an internal enquiry was immediately launched to recover the gold. The bank is understood to have constituted a team of officers for the investigation which arrived in from outside the State and started the probe.
However, the matter has not been reported to Police Station Rajbagh or any other Police Station in Srinagar.
According to these sources, the enquiry team has grilled all the eight security guards, Manzoor Ahmad, Fayaz Ahmad, Bilal Ahmad Lawai, Sirajuddin, Wali Mohammad, Adil Ganai and Wali Mohammad besides incharge of CCTV Shabnam Subhan. Officials incharge of the Gold Loan section and retail banking have also been questioned. However, there has been no clue with regard to the person who has stolen the gold.
Branch Manager Saba Saleem responded to a phone call from this newspaper. She, however, declined that any theft of the gold had taken place in her branch. “There’s no substance in it”, she said and snapped the call.
HDFC Bank’s head of North India operations Zuber Ahmad could not be reached for comment.
