Six Booked for Rs 38 Crore Bank Fraud in Nashik; Jeweller Held

The Nashik police have registered a case against six persons for allegedly cheating the TJSB Co-operative Bank of Rs 38 crore and arrested Bafna Jewellers director Nilesh Bafna in this connection, officials said on Monday.

According to the police, Bafna had taken Rs 90 lakh cash credit from the TJSB Bank in 1998. He repaid it over a period of time and earned the faith of the bank officials.

Later, he demanded more loans from time to time, with the amount reaching up to Rs 44 crore. However, he allegedly did not pay the loan interest regularly from March 2025. The bank issued notices to Bafna, but in vain, the police said.

As Bafna's account became a non-performing asset, the bank started the process of attachment of his property. Following the district magistrate's order dated May 12, the bank issued a notice to Bafna on June 3 to take custody of all the goods in his shop. However, Bafna did not give custody of the shop, they said.

As a result, the shop's shutter was broken with the help of the police and goods valued at only Rs 25,19,250 were found there. A false stock statement of goods of Rs 59.07 crore was created by the accused, and it was pretended that these documents were genuine, according to the police.

Based on these documents, various loan facilities and cash credit were taken from the bank. The cheating came to light during an inquiry of transactions of the accused since 1998, they said.

Following a complaint by a bank officer, the Sarkarwada police registered a case on Sunday under relevant legal provisions against Nilesh Subhash Bafna, Subhash Lakhichand Bafna, Namrata Nilesh Bafna, Prabhavati Subhash Bafna, Sarla Parasmal Bafna and guarantor Kantilal Lakhichand Bafna.

Nilesh Bafna was arrested and remanded in police custody till June 26, the police said.

The case has been transferred to the police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) for further investigation, they added.