Former bank manager allegedly used stolen locker gold proceeds to open liquor shop in UP

A former bank manager Kuldeep Ramchandra Sahani 35 allegedly used the proceeds from gold jewellery he stole from bank lockers to open a governmentauthorised liquor shop in Uttar Pradeshrsquos Gorakhpur districtSahani allegedly targeted senior citizens and nonresident Indians NRIs who he believed were less likely to check their lockers regularly The police have arrested Sahani after tracing nearly Rs 9 crore in transactions in his bank accounts and recovered all of the complainantrsquos jewellery within four days of launching the investigationAccording to police sources the case came to light after Pradeep Motiram Bhatia 74 a retired professional who has been living in Dubai with his family for nearly 52 years returned to Mumbai and visited the bank branch in Kandivli West to collect the gold ornaments he had stored in his lockerpopcorn number610 grams descWeight of gold allegedly stolen by accused classDefaultBhatia had deposited around 610 grams of gold jewellery valued at Rs 8180 lakh in the locker on March 22 2024 before returning to Dubai When he came back nearly two years later he allegedly discovered that the jewellery had disappeared Following his complaint the Kandivli police registered a case under Section 3165 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita BNSThe accused admitted to removing and pledging the jewellery following which he was arrested Representation PiciStockThe evidenceThe investigation allegedly revealed that Sahani had pledged gold ornaments with some of these establishments The police obtained details and photographs of the jewellery pledged by the accused When the photographs were shown to Bhatia he allegedly identified them as the same ornaments he had kept in his bank locker According to a police officer involved in the investigation Sahani subsequently admitted to removing and pledging the jewellery following which he was arrestedThe modus operandiInvestigators suspect that Sahani deliberately selected lockers belonging to people who were less likely to check them frequently Police believe that while working as a bank manager he became aware that customers often kept valuable jewellery in lockers for years without receiving any financial returns from it The accused allegedly developed a plan to remove such jewellery pledge it with goldloan or finance establishments raise money and use the funds for his own purposes Police suspect that NRIs and senior citizens were particularly attractive targets as they may visit their lockers less frequently than other customersThe investigationSince the alleged theft had taken place nearly two years earlier investigators could not rely heavily on technical evidence The police examined the details of employees who had access to the lockerrelated process and obtained their KYC documents and banking information During this exercise investigators came across bank accounts linked to SahaniThe sleuthsThe investigation was conducted under the guidance of police chief Deven Bharti ACP Shashi Kumar Meena DCP Sandeep Ghuge and ACP Santosh Dhanwate Kandivli Senior Inspector Karan Sonkawade supervised the probe while API Deepak Kadbane of the Kandivli Police Cyber Cell led the investigationFull scaleThe investigation has now widened to determine whether the accused allegedly targeted other lockers in a similar manner ldquoSahani left his job at the bank in 2025 Given his alleged modus operandi we are examining whether other customers could have been affected during his tenurerdquo said a police officer Police have informed the bank about their concerns and asked it to cooperate in checking lockers held by customers Locker holders are being contacted and cops are examining whether their jewellery is intact Investigators are also probing the accusedrsquos financial activities and the utilisation of the money raised by pledging the jewelleryDubious transactionsWhen Sahanirsquos statements were scrutinised police found transactions totalling nearly R9 crore over about two years Investigators noticed that a substantial number of transactions involved private finance companies banks goldloan establishments and jewellers Police haved traced the entities involved in these transactions using their KYC details and questioned representatives of the banks finance companies and jewellery establishmentsGorakhpur connectionSahani was born and brought up in Mumbai but is originally from Gorakhpur district in UP Investigators are now trying to establish whether the money raised by pledging the allegedly stolen jewellery was used to finance or establish the liquor business or for other purposeslsquoBanks do not insure contents of safety boxesrsquoA person from the banking industry who spoke on the condition of anonymity said ldquoAs a general rule banks do not guarantee or insure the value of jewellery valuables or other items kept in safedeposit lockers primarily because the bank does not know what the customer has placed inside the locker or what those contents are worth That however does not absolve the bank of its responsibility to provide adequate security and follow prescribed locker proceduresrdquoThe gold recovered from Kuldeep Ramchandra Sahani PicBy Special ArrangementSince the bank charges the customer for the locker facility it has a duty to ensure reasonable safety according to the expert ldquoIf a loss occurs due to the bankrsquos negligence fraud misconduct security lapse or the involvement of its employees the bank can be held liable under applicable rules and law Under the Reserve Bank of India framework such liability is generally capped at 100 times the annual locker rent This however remains a contentious issue because the contents of a locker may have not only monetary value but also significant emotional or sentimental value for the customerFor instance inherited jewellery or family documents may be impossible to replace merely through monetary compensation Therefore while banks cannot be expected to insure the contents of every locker they cannot completely escape responsibility when the loss is attributable to their own negligence or security failurerdquo