Chennai bank heist twist: Suspended manager dons burqa, drops Rs 1.5cr gold she stole to dodge probe; gets caught again

CHENNAI: The burqa-clad woman who left behind a bag with 1.256kg of gold worth 1.5 crore at a private bank in Velachery on Dec 5 was actually returning what she had stolen from there, police said on Thursday.Police identified her as Padmapriya Srinivasan, 37, a manager at the branch who had been suspended for stealing valuables from lockers. In Nov, she had been arrested for stealing and selling 243.03grams of gold from a locker belonging to an NRI. Subsequently, another customer complained that a gold bar and jewellery had been stolen from her locker at the Velachery branch. Police said that when Padmapriya, who was out on bail, learned of the new investigation, she decided to return the loot to avoid trouble. But she ended up in the police's hands again as they used CCTV camera footage to trace her to a hostel at Velachery. Around 2.30pm on Dec 5, a burqa-clad woman entered the bank on 100-Feet Road and introduced herself as ‘Fathima'. She made enquiries at the reception desk about a procedure, told the staff that she would return with her husband Muhammad, and exited leaving behind a bag containing the gold. The bank's deputy vice-president, Ahamed Kadhari, filed a complaint on Dec 10 after the gold remained unclaimed. The bag recovered by police included a one-kg gold bar, a chain and necklace weighing 124.8grams, and two bangles weighing 31.8grams.Upon reviewing CCTV footage from different locations, police identified the woman as Padmapriya, the branch's former manager and locker in-charge. The police recovered the stolen gold and released Padmapriya after questioning her. Further investigation is on to ascertain the full extent of the fraud.