Case Study: Loan against gold jewellery is considered safe and secure. Many banks have started financing against the gold jewellery to their customers. They have also empanelled some jewellers of repute to assess the pur

Case Study: Loan against gold jewellery is considered safe and secure. Many banks have started financing against the gold jewellery to their customers. They have also empanelled some jewellers of repute to assess the purity and weight of the gold ornaments so as to judge the quantum of advances to be made to the borrowers. Based on the experiences of other banks, the Prime Mercantile Bank Ltd., also started financing against the gold jewellery. It's Board framed a policy for financing against the gold jewellery which inter-alia contains the eligibility criteria of empanelment of goldsmiths to assess the weight and purity of the gold content in the jewellery, identification of the borrower, maximum amount that can be given to a borrower and repayment period, measures of recovery in case of default of the borrower and other related issues. At one of the small town branch in Rajasthan, a Branch Manager (BM) named A, was posted and he is known in his fraternity bankers, as aggressive marketer and booster of branch business. After A's joining at Rajathan branch the advances portfolio witnessed rapid rise from ₹ 50 lakh as of 31st March, 2018 to ₹ 125 lakh as at 31st December, 2018. The incremental advances figure consists of 90% of loan against jewellery. This success story of A was shared by his Regional Manager among other Branch Managers. After the close of the financial year of 31st March 2019, the inspection department of the bank carried out the branch inspection and noted many irregularities, specifically in the portfolio of loan against jewellery, which includes the mounting NPA, major exposure in jewellery loan in the name of a particular borrower, non-verification/non-existence of the KYC documents of the borrowers, impurity in the gold held as collateral, poor analysis report of the gold by the empanelled Goldsmith, etc. Later it also came into the light that the Branch Manager had a close proximity with the empanelled Goldsmith. This Goldsmith tried to escape as and when approached by the inspecting team to ask some queries. The inspecting team was surprised, how in a small town, the loan against jewellery portfolio increased tremendously in a very short period of time. In the close vicinity of the branch, the crime relating to gold snatching, theft and burglary of the jewellery items increased tremendously as per news published in the local newspapers and crime reporting data of the police to the collector. The Vigilance team of the central office of the bank was also smelling something wrong and was anxious to unearth fraud, if any, and approached you to carry out forensic audit/ investigation. Based on the above facts, answer the following: (c) Discuss the provisions of Indian Penal Code, 1860 and evaluate if the Branch Manager and Goldsmith be treated guilty under such act.