Two senior officials of a nationalised bank were arrested on Sunday for alleged forgery of signature and cheating a family who had taken a loan from the bank eight years ago.

Police said Isharad Ali Mollah, a teacher in Calcutta University, had deposited his wife’s gold ornaments — weighing 571 grams — in the bank at Bhowanipore and taken a gold loan of a little more than ₹9 lakh in 2017.

A year later the family repaid the loan and came to withdraw the gold when they were allegedly advised by a senior bank official, who was posted there in 2018, to keep the gold in the bank itself.

“The complainant was convinced and left the gold in custody of the official thinking the gold jewellery would be kept in the safe custody of the bank. Last year in December, when the family returned to the bank to claim the ornaments, they were told by the bank that they had withdrawn the gold seven years ago,” said an officer of Bhowanipore police station where the family later lodged a complaint.

Officers of Bhowanipore police station had started the probe based on the complaint following which the cops arrested two persons attached to the bank on Sunday.

The police said one of them is a deputy manager of the bank and the other is a
cashier.

The police are investigating if more people were involved in the crime.