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Gold fraud: Needle of suspicion points to bank staff, say police:

The special team constituted to investigate the recent fake gold case has now shifted the focus to the Kotak Mahindra Bank officials, with the understanding that a few officials may have colluded with the fraudsters in cheating the bank to the tune of Rs. 6 crore.
The MVP Police on December 10 arrested 12 persons, including five gold jewellery appraisers who were appointed by the Kotak Mahindra Bank, on the charges of securing a loan of Rs. 6 crore by pledging fake gold jewellery with the bank. The main accused Sunkuru Neelamadhav Subudi, his mother, gold appraisers K. Banoji Rao, A. Shiva Kumar, M.S.M. Bhushan, R. Panduranga and D. Veerabhadra Swamy were among the arrested. “But now the needle of suspicion is pointing towards a few officials in the bank,” said ACP (Dwaraka Zone) P. Ramachandra Rao.
A senior officer investigating the case said that the way the loan was disbursed points towards collusion of the bank officials.
‘Unusual loan disbursal’
“First of all, sanction of such a huge loan by taking 24 kg of gold without physical checking and just depending on the appraiser’s certificate is not believable. The entire stuff was fake.” The loan was disbursed in an unusually short time while normally one had to wait for weeks, despite submitting proper documents. “A few bank officials seemed to be in a hurry to sanction the loan. And this is our main hunch in suspecting the connivance of the officials,” said an inspector.
According to the police, each bank appoints about five to six gold appraisers. As per the norms, the appraisers should be recognised by the Jewellery Appraisers’ Association, but in most of the cases they are appointed on good faith and based on recommendations.
“The credibility of the appraisers is rarely checked and in Visakhapatnam city alone there are over 120 such appraisers,” said a police officer.
The fraud came to light when the accused did not pay a single instalment after obtaining the loan about six months back. Based on verification by the internal audit department of the bank, it was found that they were duped with fake jewellery, said the ACP.

A special team has been sent to Bhubaneswar to arrest Umashankar Patro and Pradyum Pandey, friends of Neelamadhav, who owns a jewellery store in Bhubaneswar in Odisha and who supplied the fake gold ornaments.


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