The Central Crime Branch (CCB) of Coimbatore City Police on Saturday arrested a gold appraiser on charge of cheating a bank of over ₹67 lakh.
The arrested has been identified as M. Karthik, a resident of Sullivan Street, who had been as gold ornament appraiser for Avarampalayam branch of the Central Bank of India from 2004.
As per the complaint lodged by the then branch manager of the bank N. Jairam on January 19, 2019, a total of 3819.200 gram of jewellery appraised by Karthik between August 17, 2017 and August 29, 2018 were fake gold ornaments. A total of ₹ 67,38,000 was released from the bank to customers against these jewellery in different gold loans. The branch manager alleged that the forgery led to a loss to the tune of ₹ 67,38,000, together with interest, to the bank. The complaint also alleged that Karthikl removed one gold chain weighing 16.400 gram from the gold loan account of one customer. The removed portion was valued ₹ 44,200. Karthik was arrested by a special team of the CCB on Saturday.
Two city residents lose money in online fraud
Two residents of the city have together lost nearly ₹6 lakh after they were cheated by unknown persons through fraudulent online transactions.
In the first case, V. Divya (36), a resident of Pappanaickenpalayam, was cheated by an unknown person of ₹5,19,047 on the pretext of arranging her a loan.
According to Coimbatore City Cyber Cell, an unknown person contacted the woman posing as an employee of Capital First Finance, Bengaluru, and assured to provide a loan of Rs 4 lakh.
The person collected a total of ₹5,19,047 from the woman through UPI payment between December 29, 2021 and January 6 this year as processing charges for the loan. The woman was cheated of an amount higher than the sum offered to her as loan.
The Cyber Cell has registered a case based on the woman’s complaint.
In the second case, M. Robert (56), a resident of Veerappa Thevar Colony at Nanjundapuram was duped of ₹74,998 by an unknown person who posed as a bank official.
Cyber Cell police said that Mr. Robert received a link from an unknown number with a link to update Pan card number in his SBI bank account on Friday. The complainant clicked the link and entered credentials of his online banking login. Later, Mr. Robert found that a total of ₹74,998 was debited in two transactions. He lodged a complaint with Coimbatore City Cyber Cell. A case has been registered.
