Idukki: Police have arrested a bank manager for cheating customers of over ₹50 lakh in a gold loan scam. The accused, ER Rajesh (36), from Vandiperiyar, was working as the branch manager of Muthoot Mini Financiers in Anakkara since 2009.
The fraud was discovered when a new manager took charge and found major irregularities. The zonal manager then filed a complaint with Vandammed police, leading to Rajesh’s arrest.
According to police, Rajesh collected gold ornaments and cash from customers as security against loans. But instead of giving them genuine receipts, he issued fake ones. He later pledged the gold ornaments in other financial institutions or sold them for personal gain.
During the ongoing probe, the police managed to recover seven sovereigns of gold from the Cordial Grameen Finance branch at Puttady. Authorities suspect that the scale of the fraud is much larger than initially estimated. Several victims have already come forward with complaints after the scam became public.
A sovereign of gold is a traditional unit of gold weight used in South India, especially Kerala and Tamil Nadu. 1 sovereign = 8 grams of gold. 7 sovereigns × 8 grams = 56 grams of gold.
Rajesh was produced before the Nedumkandam court and has been remanded to judicial custody.
More details will be released soon.
