Panchkula, May 18 -- A local court has rejected the regular bail application of a jewellery shop owner who was booked in as many as 26 FIRs between 2022 and 2023 in connection with gold loans against fake jewellery. In one of the FIRs, the accused, Deepak Bhola, aged 45, proprietor of a jewellery shop in Sector 9, is accused of supplying counterfeit gold to a co-accused, Neeru Kohli, who then allegedly pledged it with Bank of India to secure a loan of Rs.6 lakh. Before approving the loan, the bank got the ornaments tested from Bhola, who was empanelled with the bank as a valuer. After he assessed the gold's value and issued a certificate, a loan was sanctioned. Subsequent investigations revealed that another loan of Rs.3.92 lakh was disbursed to Kohli the following month against more counterfeit gold, all evaluated by Bhola himself. The total loss to the bank from this specific instance is estimated at Rs.11.16 lakh. After Kohli defaulted on loan repayment despite several notices, the bank decided to auction the gold and got it re-appraised from another goldsmith, who revealed that it was fake and underweight. This exposed the alleged collusion between Kohli and Bhola. The public prosecutor vehemently opposed Bhola's bail, emphasising the gravity of the offence and his alleged involvement in numerous similar scams, portraying him as the "kingpin of a big scam causing huge loss to different financial institutions". In contrast, the defence argued Bhola's innocence. However, the court of sessions judge Ved Parkash Sirohi, after carefully considering the serious nature of the allegations and the potential scale of the fraudulent activities, found no grounds to grant bail....