The credibility of cooperative financial institutions in the district has been clouded by the recent incidents of deceit involving fake gold ornaments that are pledged to get loans or used as a replacement for already pledged genuine gold ornaments.
As the gold loan is a major segment of cooperative banks, including primary credit societies and local branches of the District Co-operative Bank (DCB) here, the recent incidents of deceit in collusion with the employees of the institutions are feared to dent their credibility among their customers.
Bank staff role
The Social Workers’ Cooperative Welfare Society at Karivellur here, a cooperative credit society, was defrauded of nearly ₹3 crore by pledging imitation gold ornaments. Two people, including an employee, were arrested in connection with the case unearthed last month. The latest gold scam was reported from the main branch of the Kannur DCB two days ago. It involved replacement of genuine gold ornaments pledged by customers with fake ornaments. Three employees, including managers, were placed under suspension pending inquiry.
“We have taken stringent action against those allegedly involved in the scam and we will take more corrective measures to sustain the confidence of our customers,” said A.K. Purushothaman, General Manager of the DCB here. He told The Hindu that a detailed inquiry would be conducted to find out if more employees were involved.
13 customers affected
A police investigation into the scam at the DCB branch at Taliparamba is also under way. An inquiry by the the bank officials has found that 13 customers who had taken loan by pledging gold ornaments were affected as their ornaments were replaced by fake ornaments. The genuine ornaments were suspected to have been used for getting gold loans from other banks. As per the DCB officials, the bank was defrauded of around ₹70 lakh, including the total affected loan amount of ₹42 lakh, which is 70% of the value of the pledged gold.
According to the officials, the customers who have been affected by the scam will have to wait for months, till the case was disposed of by court, to get their ornaments or the cost.
