GUJRAT: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) claimed to have arrested the main suspect, a goldsmith, allegedly involved in a Rs215 million scam of replacing the gold jewellery pledged by bank clients with fake replicas in three branches of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP).

The scam was unearthed last month when six officials of three NBP branches -- Mungowal, Tanda and Servis Industries, GT Road -- were arrested and cases were lodged against them with the FIA’s Gujrat circle.

A senior FIA official told Dawn that the Gujrat circle finally apprehended Saqib Ali, a resident of Jattuwakal locality of the city, who had been working as a gold assessor for the NBP Gujrat Zone.

The arrest, he said, was made in connection with FIRs Nos 285, 311, 314 and 382/2025, registered under sections 409, 109, 420 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and 5(2) PCA, 1947.

He said the suspect had been identified as the ringleader of a gang involved in misappropriation and replacement of gold jewellery pledged with the NBP by customers against their bank loans.

As per the initial report submitted by the NBP with the FIA, Saqib masterminded the fraud and executed it, embezzling gold worth approximately Rs215m.

FIA Gujranwala Zone Director Muhammad Bin Ashraf told Dawn that the role of the suspect in the scam has been established, while verification of some other bank loan cases was underway.

The investigation was in progress to identify all collaborators and to unearth more such cases pertaining to NBP gold-backed loans, if any, he added.

The FIA raiding team that arrested the suspect was headed by Gujrat FIA Station House Officer (SHO) Sub Inspector Ijaz Hussain Sandhu.

It is learnt that a brother of the arrested goldsmith was also wanted by the FIA in the scam.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2025