Gurugram: Three employees of a public bank and a private locker vendor were arrested for allegedly breaking into a customer’s locker at the Sector-15 branch in Faridabad and misappropriating valuables worth ₹1.5 crore, police said.
Police identified the three as Priti Kataria, former Sector-15 branch head currently posted at the head office in Sector 11; service manager Bhawna Narwal; manager Ashok Kumar Singh, who headed the branch from 2022 to 2024 and is currently posted in Gujarat; and a locker vendor, Neeraj Sharma. Police said the missing valuables were yet to be recovered.
The incident was reported by 71-year-old DC Garg, a chartered accountant and a resident of Faridabad’s Sector-15A after his wife, Neelam Garg, could not access the locker in late January using the key issued by the bank in 2014. Garg claimed the couple last opened the locker about eight months ago when the valuables were intact.
The 71-year-old went to the branch only to find that the locker had been allotted to another customer with no trace of the couple’s jewelry worth crores.
An FIR was registered against unidentified bank officials at the Central Faridabad police station on February 2 under sections 316(5) (criminal breach of trust by a public servant, banker, merchant or agent) and 61 (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.The suspects were arrested on March 9 and sent to judicial custody on March 11.
Yashpal Yadav, public relations officer of Faridabad police, said Garg alleged in the FIR that almost 1kg of gold and 3kg of silver ornaments had been kept in the locker.
“The case was handed over to the Crime Branch and the investigation revealed major irregularities, indicating mala fide intention on the part of the bank officials. No video recording of breaking the locker and extracting the valuables was carried out, blatantly violating RBI guidelines,” Yadav said.
Investigators said the branch updated its content management software in March 2024 and 788 out of 793 locker databases transferred successfully. Quoting bank records, they said five lockers—including Garg’s—were shown as empty, broken, and issued to other customers.
Yadav said the investigation revealed that Kataria allegedly asked Sharma via WhatsApp to break the locker instead of making an official request.
“Sharma was not even authorised to break the locker, as it was a different brand for which Sharma didn’t work,” he added.
Crime Branch officials said that Sharma was paid ₹50,000 from the account of the wife of branch computer operator Mohammad Tahir. Besides, twelve bills, each worth ₹15,000, were raised to favour Tahir in paying Sharma the money, they said, adding that they were trying to establish Tahir’s role in the misappropriation.
Officials said the investigation to recover the valuables and arrest others involved in the misappropriation was ongoing.