4 gold loan firm staff held for fraud

Bengaluru: Four Four employees of a private gold loan company were arrested for allegedly misusing money and gold of a few customers.
The accused are sales executive Amarnath, 38, assistant branch head Shivakumar, 42, branch manager’s assistant Monisha, 24, and auditor Shankar Gowda, 28. All are employees of Manappuram Gold Finance’s Yeshwantpur branch. Police said the branch head is the main suspect, who is absconding.
Police said the suspects allegedly misused a few crores of rupees; they would give half of the eligible loan amount to customers and pocket the rest without their knowledge. They would also replace the gold pledged by customers with fake gold.
Investigation revealed the gang allegedly pocketed money they raised from sale of defaulting customers’ gold in public action.
Police said the fraud came to light after the management found irregularities in the branch.