A special police team on Friday arrested four persons working in two private firms engaged in gold loan business here on the charge of stealing mortgaged gold weighing 305.6 sovereigns and seized the stolen property from them after investigation.
Among those arrested were Solaimani, the gold appraiser, P. Muthukumar, an executive, and C. Umashankar, the branch manager of a private financial company engaged in providing gold loans. The team arrested Marimuthu, manager of another company which is also involved in the same business.
Sources said the charge against Solaimani, Muthukumar and Umashankar was that they had stolen the gold mortgaged by the public in their company in which they had been working and mortgaged them in another private company involved in the same business and obtained money through the illegal act and used them for personal reasons. Commission was allegedly paid to Marimuthu to facilitate this illegal act which had been going on for nearly one-and-half years. The entire crime came to light during an audit conducted in the private financial company where Umashankar worked during which several pouches once containing gold jewellery kept in the locker were found empty.
Acting on a complaint from V. Rajesh, zonal manager of a private company from where mortgaged gold was stolen, the Ganesh Nagar police registered a case on Thursday under IPC section 381 (theft by clerk or servant of property in possession of master). Detailed inquiries were conducted with Solaimani, Muthukumar and Umashankar by the special team formed to crack the case. The modus operandi to commit the offence came to light during inquiry of the trio besides interrogation of Marimuthu.
