In a case of cheating a bank, a borrower and the bank's gold appraiser were arrested on Wednesday and produced before a court here for pledging fake jewels weighing around 2,000 grams.
Following a complaint from the Krishnarayar Padithurai branch of the Tamil Nadu State Cooperative and Agricultural Rural Development Bank regional manager Gopinath, a case was registered.
DIG and Commissioner of Police (in-charge) Sandeep Mittal formed teams to look into the complaint.
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It is said that Govindarajan (51) of By-pass road has a shop in South Avani Moola Street.
Since the last five to seven years, he had been pledging “gold jewels” with the bank and taking loans.
He had pledged the “valuables” in his name, his wife's name, his friend's name and a few others.
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The bank's appraiser, whose name was given as Maria Sebastian (60) had allegedly passed the valuables after appraisal and issued payment orders for release of money against the gold.
However, during statutory audit, the team realised that the gold pledged by Govindarajan in different names was fake and not genuine, a police officer said.
The accused had taken loans to the tune of Rs 23.45 lakh so far from the bank, he added.
Confessions
Based on the confessions, the police registered a case of cheating, conspiracy among others against Govindarajan and Maria Sebastian.
They were produced before a court. Special teams are investigating as to whether any gang operated behind the main accused and the modus operandi used by them to pledge the jewels despite checks by officials at the bank, a senior police officer said.