Nagpur: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Nagpur city police on Thursday arrested two auditors in a financial fraud in which fake gold ornaments were allegedly pledged to secure loans from nine branches of ICICI Bank, causing losses worth Rs23.19 crore to the bank. The arrested accused are Pramod Tete, a resident of Lalganj, and Rajendra Shilankar, from Pipla. Both were produced before the court, which remanded them in police custody for three days. Assistant police inspector Santosh Tokalwad is conducting investigation.According to deputy commissioner of police (EOW) Deepak Aggarwal, the fraud came to light during an internal audit. As per the complaint filed by Dhananjay Thite, zonal head of ICICI Bank’s Zonal Office at Ajni Chowk, at Dhantoli police station, ICICI Bank appointed Vicky Vishwakarma on Oct 18, 2025, to conduct gold loan audit. Upon inspection, several gold packets were found to contain fake metal. Subsequent checks from Oct 20 to 27, 2025, at the Manish Nagar branch revealed 32 fake gold packets. A comprehensive audit across nine branches identified a total of 159 fake gold packets.As per the complaint, the scam allegedly took place between Jan 1, 2023, and Oct 31, 2025. Accused persons, in collusion with valuers/appraisers and 152 account holders, allegedly created and pledged counterfeit gold ornaments to obtain loans.Police named seven valuers/appraisers, including Nandu Kharwade, Rajendra Shilankar, Pramod Tete, Dhanjay Dhomne, Pankaj Kekatpure and Sachin Raut along with 152 account holders as accused.Investigators suspect possible internal collusion and are probing for a larger “mastermind” behind the racket.
