Ghaziabad, Sept. 24 -- A bank branch in Ghaziabad's Raj Nagar District Centre has filed a police complaint alleging that customers obtained gold loans worth Rs.1.46 crore by pledging fake ornaments, police said on Wednesday. An FIR naming 18 people was registered at Kavi Nagar police station on September 22.

The alleged fraud came to light in June, when two people approached the branch for a gold loan. Officials of a finance company assisted them, and an official of the bank's empanelled valuation agency certified the ornaments as genuine, according to the FIR.

A random check by bank officials, however, found the ornaments to be fake. The two people fled the branch before police arrived, the FIR said.

The bank then examined other pledg...