Ahmedabad: A Bank of Baroda employee at the Kalupur branch has been accused of siphoning Rs 8.7 crore from its currency chest and masking the shortage by uploading false balance certificates on RBI’s e-Kuber portal. The fraud surfaced during an internal audit after the employee’s prolonged absence.According to the complaint filed with Kalupur police on Friday by the chief manager, the accused, a Chandkheda resident, was the joint custodian of the currency chest at the Gandhi Road branch. He went on leave on April 13 citing health issues, but failed to return despite repeated calls and emails.During the subsequent audit, officials discovered that 174 reams of Rs 500 notes were missing. Each ream contained 10 bundles of 100 notes each, totalling Rs 8.7 crore. The discrepancy emerged when physical cash was matched against records after a new custodian took charge.The complaint alleges that internal records falsely showed the cash as available, suspecting manipulation of the “bin book” and Excel sheets used for day-to-day reconciliation. These records were allegedly used to generate the certificates uploaded to the e-Kuber system.CCTV footage reviewed during the inquiry allegedly showed the accused entering the branch on the evening of Jan 13. A labourer and his son entered shortly afterwards, and the footage shows the three individuals later leaving the branch carrying multiple boxes.The complainant stated that security personnel had informed him that night that the accused was taking boxes outside the premises. When questioned at the time, the accused allegedly claimed the boxes contained scrap material meant for disposal. The same explanation was reportedly given to the security guard as well.
