Dead man booked for Rs 4.2cr gold theft

Surat: In a bizarre case, a former manager of a finance firm has been booked for an alleged Rs 4.2-crore theft — a year after he died by suicide.The Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) has registered an FIR against Hasmukh Mewada, who ended his life on April 16 last year, following a complaint by 80-year-old Valchand Veerchand Shah, owner of the finance firm ‘VV Shah' whose office is located in Jhampa Bazaar.Mewada is accused of siphoning off around 3 kg of gold and 39 kg of silver ornaments worth Rs 4.20 crore from bank lockers where jewellery pledged by customers was stored. Shah approached the Crime Branch after suspecting that other persons, including some relatives of the accused, might also have been involved in the alleged theft.According to the FIR, Shah has been running the financing business for several decades with a valid licence, under which customers mortgage their gold and silver ornaments to avail loans. Mewada had worked with the firm for about 25 years and was considered a trusted employee. Shah had entrusted him with depositing and maintaining the pledged ornaments in lockers at Mahidharpura Urban Bank. One of the three keys to the lockers was kept with Mewada as he was responsible for maintaining the accounts of the ornaments deposited by customers. Shah had also kept his family's gold and silver jewellery in the same lockers.The matter came to light in April last year when some customers repaid their loans and demanded their ornaments back. When Shah asked Mewada to bring the jewellery from the lockers, he allegedly kept giving excuses and delaying the process. On April 15, when Shah's family members went to the bank along with Mewada to retrieve the ornaments, he suddenly disappeared with the locker keys. When he could not be traced, a missing complaint was lodged at Mahidharpura Police Station.Later that evening, Mewada returned home. When Shah and his son Bhavin contacted him, he told them that he would come to the office the next day. However, on April 16, when Shah tried calling him again, Mewada did not respond. Shah and his family then went to the bank and operated the locker themselves. To their shock, the gold and silver ornaments kept in around 10 boxes were missing.The family immediately informed bank officials and left the premises. While they were on their way back, they received information that Mewada had died by suicide at his residence.After his death, Shah checked the records of pledged jewellery and contacted customers. He found that around 400 customers had deposited about 2.24 kg of gold and 29.75 kg of silver ornaments with the firm as collateral for loans. Shah also realised that his family's jewellery — about 950 grams of gold and 9 kg of silver — had been kept in the same lockers.Investigations further revealed that Mewada had taken 14 gold loans worth Rs 12.71 lakh from Manappuram Finance by mortgaging about 262 grams of gold."As the complainant believes that other persons might also be involved with Mewada in this crime, a complaint has been filed with us. The complainant suspects that Mewada may have handed over some of the gold and silver to a relative who runs a jewellery shop in Surat. We are also investigating whether Mewada had fallen into debt due to cricket betting or some other habit," said a Crime Branch official.
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