Sunil Jose, 51, chief associate of the State Bank of India (SBI), Karalam branch, who siphoned off ₹2.76 crore by fudging documents for pledging gold, surrendered before the Crime Branch on Wednesday.
Earlier, the Thrissur district and sessions court had rejected his pre-arrest bail plea. He and the manager of the bank are under suspension.
Sunil Jose of Karukulangara, Irinjalakuda, conducted the fraud between October, 2018 and November, 2020.
He re-pledged the gold, already pledged by customers, in the names of his relatives and friends to siphon off money. He created fake gold loan applications in the names of his kin by affixing their signature in the documents to misappropriate ₹1,27,59,000.
He also allegedly sold gold ornaments pledged by bank customers. In addition to this, he allegedly misappropriated a sum of ₹9 lakh given by customers to close their loans. He returned the gold to the customers by manipulating documents thus causing a loss of more than ₹2.76 crore to the bank.
He used to keep close friendship with both bank officials and customers. The bank manager, gold appraiser, and the chief associate used to keep the keys of the locker. The fraud was unearthed during an audit of the bank.
Though the Kattoor police registered a case initially on a complaint by the assistant manager of the bank, it was later handed over to the Crime Branch.
