GUJRAT: Six officials of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), Gujrat zone, have been arrested for replacing the gold jewellery of account holders worth Rs90m with the fake jewellery in the lockers of three branches of the bank.

The goldsmith, namely Mohsin, who was also the accomplice of these bank officials is at large.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has registered three cases against the suspects.A senior FIA official said Abubakar Zahid, operations manager, and Shoaib Shareef, cashier, of Servis Industries Branch; Khalid Mehmood, ex-branch manager, and Saadat Ali Bhatti, cashier, of Mangowal branch and Mohtesham Abid, operations manager, and Muhammad Ali, cashier, of Tanda branch, have been arrested so far.

Three cases have been lodged against them.

As per these cases, gold worth Rs55m from Tanda branch, gold worth Rs20m from Servis Industries Branch and gold worth Rs15m from Mangowal branch was replaced with fake jewellery.

Gujranwala FIA zone Director Muhammad Bin Ashraf told Dawn the suspects were the joint custodian/key holder of vault/strong room of the bank whereas the other gold loan cases were also being verified by the NBP.

He said the FIA was conducting raids to arrest goldsmith Mohsin who was the facilitator of the suspects.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2025