Vikrant Ramesh Rathod, accused of defrauding a bank of Rs 1.38 crore by providing fake gold, was apprehended by the Bangur Nagar police after one year.
Sanu Bajrangiram Bhadani, a woman, resides on Akurli Road in Kandivali and serves as a Chief Manager at the Bank of India. In July 2021, she was designated as the Branch Manager at the Marve Road branch, Mith Chowki, Malad. The bank had introduced several loan schemes for its account holders.
Sapna Bhatt, the proprietor of Bahuchar Enterprises, was designated by the bank to verify the purity of gold for the gold mortgage scheme. Account holders in need of loans against gold received them after the verification of their gold.
Sapna Bhatt verified the gold and issued a certificate to the bank confirming the authenticity of the gold.
The bank extended a loan of Rs 1.38 crore to fourteen account holders for whom Sapna had provided certificates stating that the gold was genuine. However, some account holders who had received loans had presented fake gold.
In this case, the police filed an FIR against Alifia Vikrant Rathod, Yash Jagdishbhai Parekh, Rahul Krishnakumar Agarwal, Devyani Krishnakumar Agarwal, Gautam Channa Rathod, Vikrant R Rathod, Hitendrabhai Rajgaur, Reena Kamlesh Pritroda, Rajmati Bhavnath Yadav, Arun Dattatraya Lad, Dilip Dhan Singh Thakur, Sagar Hitendrabhai Rajgaur, Mahesh S. Rana, Meena Mahesh Rana, and Sapna Kumar Bhatt.
Vikrant had been evading law enforcement for the past year in connection with these crimes. He was eventually apprehended by the police on Friday. Some of the accused in these crimes have already been arrested, and efforts to locate the remaining fugitives are ongoing.
