The manager of Bank of Maharashtra, APMC branch has registered a case of theft against a peon of the bank over the suspicion of stealing gold ornaments worth ₹10.90 lakh from the bank’s locker.
According to the police, the bank officials learnt about the theft after they did an audit of the valuables kept in their locker. The peon identified as Ashwin Bhoir, has been suspended by the bank and the further investigations are being done by the police.
In October 2022, a customer named Yadav Patil had taken a gold loan of ₹1.50 lakh against gold ornaments worth ₹2.14 lakh of which he had been paying the premiums. Meanwhile, Chirag Dhure had also taken a gold loan of ₹6.10 lakh against gold ornaments worth ₹8.75 lakh in the bank. The gold pledged by both of them in the bank was kept in locker number 6 of the bank along with the gold ornaments belonging to other customers.
In January 2023, the manager of the bank, Priyanka Ramakant Srivastav ordered for an audit of the bank lockers and found the gold in the locker as per the receipts available in the bank. In the month of March, another audit was done in which they found gold ornaments belonging to Patil and Dhure in Locker number 6 to be missing.
The bank officials suspected Bhoir to be behind the act as he was the one in charge of cleaning in the locker room area. The custodian of the locker would also handover the keys of the locker to Bhoir at times in order to take some ornaments out.
Suspecting the involvement of Bhoir, the bank officials questioned Bhoir to which he gave vague answers. “The bank officials suspect that their peon is behind this act and accordingly we have registered the case against him. We would be arresting him soon and investigate the case further,” senior police inspector Tanvir Shaikh from APMC police station said.
Bhoir has been booked by APMC police under the section 381 (theft by clerk or servant of property in possession of master) of the IPC.