The Thiruvananthapuram city police on Friday arrested a service cooperative bank employee on the charge of stealing pawned gold.
Sheen Tharayil, Circle Inspector of Police, Thampanoor, identified the accused as Gita Ramani, 26, of Kovalam. She is an employee of the Service Cooperative Bank, Gandhari Amman Kovil Road.
Access to strong room
Sub Inspector K.S. Suresh Kumar said Gita was employed as cashier and appraiser at the bank. She had access to the strong room where pawned ornaments were kept.
For seven months
He said she had over the past seven months spirited away gold ornaments, some of them pawned way back in 1994 and with no immediate claimants, worth almost Rs.25 lakh from the bank’s vault.
The racket came to light when an old client of the bank came back to claim a gold chain he had pawned 10 years ago. The police said Gita had pawned the stolen gold in two private banks in the city.
Invested in car
She invested the proceeds in car and gave away Rs.10 lakh as personal loans to some of her colleagues. The police suspect that bank had extended loans on inferior quality gold on its appraiser’s recommendation.
They said more persons could be involved in the racket and arrests in the case were likely. The accused was produced before the court on the charge of theft, cheating and confidence trickery and remanded to judicial custody for a period of 14 days.
