Thiruvananthapuram: Man arrested for pledging fake gold

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Rural district crime branch police have arrested a man who was wanted in connection with a fraud activity through which he duped Rs 20 lakh from Canara Bank’s branch at Venjarammoodu by pledging fake gold ornaments. Police identified the accused as Arun Jolly Kamalan, 38, of Muthuvila near Kallara.
Police said the accused was arrested after his anticipatory bail was rejected by high court.
The case against Kamalan is that he pledged spurious gold ornaments equivalent to 75.66 sovereigns at the Venjarammoodu branch of Canara Bank and obtained a loan of Rs 20.40 lakh in July last year.
A month later, the bank manager was contacted by the manager of another bank and was warned about the accused. Apparently, the accused had committed a similar fraud at that bank too. Following this, Canara Bank manager Vishnu Chandran filed a complaint before the Venjarammoodu police. But, the investigation by the local police dragged at a slow pace and another complaint was filed before the rural district police chief. It was following this, the case was handed over to the rural district crime branch. The accused was taken into custody and his arrest was recorded on Friday.
Kamalan is a former expatriate who used to work in Abu Dhabi. He had claimed in his anticipatory bail plea that he was innocent. He had pledged the ornaments with a private finance firm first and later transferred it to the bank as the interest rate of the private firm was high.
The accused said in his bail plea that had the gold been spurious, the staff of both private firm and the bank would have found out during the appraisal procedure.