An assistant manager of Indian Overseas Bank has been arrested in Chennai for allegedly stealing around 2,179 grams of gold jewellery pledged by customers against gold loans. As per reports, the accused officer replaced the original gold jewellery with fake jewellery.
The accused officer has been arrested by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) of the Chennai police. The officer has been identified as Podnuru Murali Krishna. He is 34 years old and originally from Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and resides in Purasawalkam.
The accused officer allegedly caused a loss of around Rs 3.09 crore to the bank. According to the police, Indian Overseas Bank Ayanavaram branch manager Dinesh Kumar filed a complaint with the Police Commissioner on August 13.
As of today, the value of 10g of 24k gold (99.9%) in Delhi, India is Rs. 1,64,755.00. So the value of 2,179 grams is Rs. 3.59 crores.
As per complaint, Murali had stolen gold jewellery pledged by customers against gold loans and replaced it with counterfeit ornaments. Based on the complaint, the CCB’s Bank Fraud Investigation Wing registered a case and launched an investigation.
Gold Loan Process: A customer deposits his/her gold in Bank and Banks sanction loan against that Gold. This Original Gold is kept in Gold Vault of the Bank which is kept inside strong room. Only two officers have access to this Gold Vault. Normally gold officer and manager have access to the gold vault. They have keys to open the gold vault.
In this case, how the accused officer managed to replace the original gold with fake gold remains a big question. The gold vault is opened by keys of both officers. This means the accused officer had both the keys and the other officer did not pay attention to it.
The investigation revealed that Murali had allegedly taken gold jewellery pledged by around 21 customers without the bank’s knowledge. He pledged the jewellery elsewhere and used the money for online gaming and personal expenses.
He subsequently replaced the customers’ original jewellery with fake ornaments at the bank, causing the bank an estimated loss of Rs 3.09 crore, police said.
A police team from the Bank Fraud Investigation Wing arrested Murali on August 19. He was produced before a court and remanded in judicial custody.
The further investigation is under way and steps are being taken to recover the gold jewellery pledged by the accused elsewhere.
