Indian Bank manager in Bengaluru stole gold from customers’ locker and played online betting. He lost gold worth Rs 4.12 crore in this gambling. Police have arrested the accused manager and the process of recovering the gold is underway.
Bengaluru: The bank manager played online betting with the gold kept in the lockers of the customers. Gold worth Rs 4.12 crore was lost in this. E. Kiran Kumar, assistant manager of the Girinagar branch of Indian Bank in Bengaluru, used the gold kept in customers’ lockers for online gambling. 34 year old Kiran Kumar had all the keys to the locker. The assistant manager gambled online with the money he got by pledging the gold from the locker in different financial companies.
Police M.S. E. Kiran Kumar, resident of Palya, has been arrested. Police have recovered about 700 grams of gold jewelery from him. The theft was discovered on February 2 when a female customer came to take out gold from her locker. A case was registered at Girinagar police station on the complaint of the bank’s zonal head Dilip Kumar.
The manager, addicted to online betting, first lost his salary, then his house’s gold and also the money borrowed from friends.
Kiran Kumar, a resident of Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, is pursuing M.S. near Vidyaranyapura. Lived with his family in Palya. He was working in Indian Bank since 2019 and recently became Assistant Manager in Girinagar branch. Kiran, who had become addicted to online betting, first lost his salary, then the gold in the house and also the money borrowed from friends. When the debt became too much, he misused the gold kept in his own bank locker to finance the money.
Kiran stole gold from the lockers several times from November last year to the end of January this year. He raised about Rs 2.5 crore by mortgaging it in different private financial companies. He spent all this money gambling on online betting apps. Investigation has revealed that till now he has lost more than Rs 5 crore in betting.
Kiran, who was working in the Girinagar branch since last June, had the keys to the lockers. He also had the right to open customers’ lockers. Whenever he needed money, he would come to the office early in the morning or open the locker in the evening after the employees left. Since before keeping the gold in the locker, Kiran used to check the accounts and take signatures from the customers, hence he knew exactly how much gold was in which locker. Police said that his modus operandi was to steal large quantities of gold in grams, take money by mortgaging it and lose it in betting within a few hours. When Kiran was suspected in the internal investigation, the zonal head interrogated him, in which he confessed to his crime.
After this, a complaint was lodged at Girinagar station and the police arrested Kiran. During interrogation, the truth of losing money in betting came to light. On this matter, South Division DCP Lokesh Jaglasar said that customers need not worry. The stolen 2.783 kg gold will be legally confiscated and returned to the bank. Then their jewelery will be handed over to the concerned customers through the bank.