It began with a phone call received from a wrong number.Around 2015, Pankaj Kumar, a gold appraiser at non-banking financial company (NBFC) Sai Corporation in Delhi, received a call from a woman who had dialled the wrong number. The two stayed in touch and eventually began an affair.Pankaj, however, was already married with two children. He soon found out that it was difficult to support both his family and the woman on his salary.The result: he went on to siphon money from his company, orchestrating a gold loan fraud worth more than Rs 3 crore over six years.During this time, he transferred around Rs 90 lakh to bank accounts linked to the woman in multiple transactions.According to the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police, between 2019 and 2025, Pankaj and his colleague in Sai Corporation, S P Bansal, created 683 fake gold loan accounts using forged KYC documents and artificial jewellery. Loans worth more than Rs 3 crore were allegedly taken in the names of 28 people, many of them former customers of the company.Pankaj was arrested on July 7. Bansal is out on bail.Story continues below this adThe alleged fraud came to light during an internal audit at Sai Corporation in August 2025.Pankaj had worked as a gold appraiser with the company for over a decade. His job was to verify the jewellery to be used as collateral by checking its hallmark and weight before approving loans and storing the ornaments in the company’s lockers.“One of the company’s directors, Dr R K Tandon, said that there were discrepancies in the accounts Pankaj was handling. Following this, he was transferred to another branch, but refused to join work. The company then ordered an audit,” said an officer.During the audit, when Pankaj was questioned about gold worth nearly Rs 14 lakh that was missing from the company’s lockers but found mention in the official records, he allegedly lost it.Story continues below this ad“He allegedly shouted and stormed out of the office. He never came back,” the officer said.“Pankaj facilitated the creation of fake gold loan accounts by appraising fake and artificial gold ornaments as genuine and using forged KYC documents and fake customer identities,” said Special Commissioner of Police (EOW) Nupur Prasad.The company got an FIR lodged.When a team of EOW led by DCP Amit Verma started going through company records, they found that the the story began around 2015 when he received the call from a wrong number.“The woman was from Delhi. The two started talking and entered into a relationship,” said the officer.Story continues below this adAt that time, Pankaj, now in his 40s, lived with his wife and two children in Rohini’s Budh Vihar. A Delhi University graduate, he had worked with other NBFCs before joining Sai Corporation’s Vikaspuri branch in 2014.“We traced the money that Pankaj had siphoned from the bank. One of the transactions was of Rs 16 lakh, which was credited to the woman’s account in 2019,” said the officer.According to the police, between 2019 and 2025, Pankaj transferred over Rs 90 lakh to multiple accounts linked to the woman. “He said there was no other way for him to take care of her and his family at the same time,” the officer said.When police tracked the people whose identities were used to secure the fraudulent loans, they found that many were former customers of Sai Corporation.Story continues below this ad“Two of them were Suresh, a MCD worker, who lives in Rajouri Garden, and his wife. He used their details to create two accounts,” said the officer.Based on the couple’s statements and the other victims, Pankaj and Bansal were eventually arrested.