Woman pledges 54 gm gold chain with nationalised bank for loan, gets fake chain after redeeming it

BENGALURU: A woman, who pledged her gold chain with a nationalised bank in Bengaluru, has claimed she was duped by bank staff. She had pledged 54.40 grams of gold worth Rs 2 lakh for a loan, but when she redeemed it, she discovered it was fake.

The incident happened at a branch in Mahalakshmi Layout, where the woman had pawned her gold in January 2025 and redeemed it in January 2026. When she took it to a jeweller, she was told it was counterfeit. The woman has filed a complaint with the police, alleging that the bank staff replaced her gold with fake one.

Speaking to Public TV, Poornima said, “I had pledged the gold in 2015 for Rs 2 lakh and had gone to the bank to renew the gold loan. I have been paying Rs 11,700 every month towards interest. For the last 10 days, the bank staff had been calling me to renew the loan. Since I needed more money, I took it to a jeweller who told me that it’s fake gold. When I returned to the bank and inquired about it, they were evasive. Hence, I have lodged a complaint with the Mahalakshmi Layout police. Only the pendant is gold, but the chain is fake”.

The bank staff claimed that Poornima should have checked the gold immediately after receiving it, but she took it home and only discovered the issue later. The police are investigating the whether some bank staffers are involved in the alleged fake gold case.