Visakhapatnam: Police suspect the role of bank staff in the multi-crore scam involving disbursal of gold loans by a few banks here. Preliminary investigations raised doubts whether bank staff influenced gold appraisers for certification of gold and sanctioning loans for fake gold, and took commission for such deeds.
However, in most cases, the gold appraisers have turned scapegoats whereas the corrupt bank officials remain untouched. Recently, the MVP Police has arrested 12 persons, including five gold jewellery appraisers of Kotak Mahindra Bank, MVP Colony Branch, on the charge of cheating the bank of Rs 6 crore by taking loans after pledging fake gold jewellery.
The gold appraisers have certified the gold-coated ornaments as quality gold.
The same gang has cheated two more private banks in the city in the same way.
ACP (Dwaraka Zone) P. Ramachandra Rao said they are investigating the multi-crore fraud and would arrest a few more, and have to get more information on how the gold appraisers have managed to mislead the bankers.
“Our investigation is yet to yield results as we didn’t recover a single penny from the fraudsters. The entire amount was transferred to the accounts of some individuals in Bhubaneswar,” he added.
