GUJRAT: Another goldsmith has been found involved in the Rs90 million gold jewellery scam of National Bank of Pakistan’s three branches and he is a brother of the goldsmith already booked in the case.

Their jewellery shop in the city’s main Sarafa Bazaar has been sealed by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

A senior FIA official identified the jewellers as Muhammad Saqib alias Munna and his brother, Abdul Razzaq alias Chand, sons of M Khalil and residents of the Jattuwakal area of the city. Both these suspects are the proprietors of Saqib Jewellers (approved goldsmith of NBP Gujrat region).

The FIA official added that the jewellers were found involved in all three cases lodged with the FIA after misappropriation/replacement of original gold being kept in the NBP by customers.

A spokesman for FIA Gujranwala said the case of replacing original gold jewellery with fake one in three branches of the NBP first surfaced in Mangowal branch on July 25. The new bank manager, Arshad Mehmood Shahid, of Mandi Bahauddin had taken the charge of the branch and he found some gold jewellery bags tampered with in the strong room. He informed his high-ups who launched an inquiry. Later, the case was sent to the FIA for further action.

The first case was lodged against the Mangowal NBP branch cashier, Saadat Ali Bhatti, and the previous manager Khalid Mehmood. The FIA and NBP management later widened the scope of the inquiry to the other batches of the zone and so far at least Rs90m worth of jewellery had been found replaced with fake one.

The FIA official said raids were being conducted to arrest both the goldsmiths.

Meanwhile, the agency has got the physical remand of five suspects until Aug 29 whereas the sixth accused Saadat Bhatti had been sent to the district jail on judicial remand.

A senior official of NBP said the bank was bound to pay back the original amounts of the scam affectees but it might take some months in the verification processes.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2025