The Krishna district police have launched a probe into the alleged multi-crore fraud in which hundreds of customers of Canara Bank, Machilipatnam Branch, were deceived.
According to the bank authorities, gold worth about Rs. 2.9 crore was robbed, and many records were tampered with in the bank since a few years.
Canara Bank General Manager J. Jaya Raju alleged that appraiser Ghantasala Venkata Naga Rama Subramanyam had replaced gold jewellery deposited in the bank with fake ornaments.
The bank officials, who conducted a departmental inquiry, found that gold jewellery, weighing about 15 kg, was missing from the lockers.
The accused also forged the signatures of some accounts.
Krishna district Superintendent of Police G. Vijay Kunar told The Hindu that said based on the complaint lodged by Mr. Jaya Raju, the Robertsonpet police registered a case on Monday, and took up investigation.
Machilipatnam Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) D. Surya Sravan Kumar said that according to the bank officials, the appraiser reopened some old accounts, which were closed, by forging the signatures of the customers, and allegedly duped the bank.
“We are trying to find out on how much of amount has been swindled, gold missing, since how long the fraud was going on in the branch, if any other bank staff are involved in the scam and other details,” said the DSP.
It is learnt that the appraiser mortgaged the gold jewellery stolen from the bank in various private finance and gold mortgaging companies and availed himself of loans.
The police, who seized some documents from Canara Bank, are probing the role of the finance companies which extended loans to the accused.
The investigation officers are trying to recover the missing gold ornaments from the private firms, the SP said.
