Hyderabad: The police have cracked the mystery of the missing gold and cash at the State Bank of India (SBI) branch in Chennur, Mancherial district. Investigators found that cashier Ravinder planned the fraud with the branch manager and an outsourcing employee.
₹12.61 crore worth of gold loans are missing
Police Commissioner Amber Kishore Jha said 25.17 kg of gold ornaments, worth ₹12.61 crore, disappeared from 402 gold loan accounts. A cash amount of ₹1.10 crore also went missing from the SBI Chennur-II branch. The case surfaced after Regional Manager Ritesh Kumar Gupta complained to the Chennur police station on February 23.
Betting losses led to fraud
ACP Venkateshwar, who led the probe, found suspicious deposits in cashier Ravinder’s account. Police took him into custody and questioned him. Investigators said Ravinder lost ₹40 lakh in online cricket betting last year. To recover losses, he joined hands with manager Manohar and staffer Sandeep to divert pledged gold.
In October, Ravinder removed gold from the bank chest and passed it to SFBC sales manager Beeraesh, CRM Rajasekhar, and sales officer Kishan. They pledged the ornaments to private finance companies. The money went back to Ravinder after deducting commissions.
142 fake loans in others’ names
The gang used 44 individuals’ names to raise 142 gold loans from firms like SBFC, Indel Money, Godavari Urban, Manappuram, and Muthoot Finance. Police arrested 44 people, including bank staff and financiers. They also recovered 15.23 kg of pledged jewellery.
Those arrested include cashier Ravinder from Shettipalli in Jaipur mandal, manager Manohar, outsourcing worker Sandeep, SBFC sales manager Beeraesh, CRM Rajasekhar, sales officer Kishan Kumar, photographer Suresh, and others.