SAHIWAL: Police booked seven employees of the Punjab Provincial Cooperative Bank Limited (PPCBL), Harappa branch, including the bank manager and a goldsmith, for allegedly replacing clients` gold worth Rs16.5 million kept in the lockers with counterfeit gold having the same weight.

Harappa police registered cases against seven employees Amanat Ali (manager), Nauman Akram (ACRO), Faryal Mumtaz (cashier), Zafar Iqbal (guard), Ashar Majeed (private security guard), Qamar Shahzad (peon), and Javed 1qbal (bank goldsmith) under sections 420, 468, 471, and 408 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), on a complaint of PPCBL Senior Vice President/ Zonal Chief Nazir Ahmed.

As per the police, last year, Sajid Bashir, a Harappa branch client and resident of Harappa city, had taken a loan by pledging gold with the bank. InFebruary 2025, he paid back the loan amounting to Rs566,096 and sought the return of his gold from the manager.

Sajid Bashir alleged that manager Amanat Ali, however, deferred return of his gold, saying that the bank goldsmith was on leave for a few days.

After repeated refusals by the manager to return the gold on different pretexts, Sajid got suspicious and filed a written complaint with the bank`s zonal chief on April 8, 2025.

The zonal chief appointed Awas Khalid, deputy zonal chief, to investigate the matter.

On April9, Mr Khalid detected embezzlement in the gold lockers` account. On April 17, the bank`s Lahore-based audit team conducted a surprise visit to the Harappa branch, along with the Okara branch goldsmith to check all gold lockers.

The visiting team found that out of 113 cotton bags containing gold in the lockers, 15 had been replaced with 533 gramcounterfeit gold.

The audit team identified that the bank manager, goldsmith, and other staff connived to replace the original gold with counterfeit items.

Following these findings, the matter was reported to the police which booked the seven employees, including the goldsmith and the manager.

Harappa police have yet to apprehend any of the suspects.

WOMAN RAPED: Police claim to have arrested two men for allegedly abducting a woman who was later raped by one of them at 16/SP village of Pakpattan tehsil.

As per police sources, 19-year-old `S`, of 16/SP village, went to the house of their acquaintances in the village. As she was returning home, she was allegedly abducted by two suspects and their accomplice riding a motorcycle.

They said the suspects, belonging to the same village, took `S` to an abandoned house where she was locked in a room and later raped by one of the suspects `M`.