Four staff, including the appraiser of Arani Cooperative Urban Bank Limited, were suspended on Wednesday for allegedly swindling ₹2.39 crore. They had pledged fake jewellery with the bank and swindled the amount, it was learnt after a departmental enquiry.
Cooperative bank officials said the suspended staff were: S. Lingappa, general manager in-charge; K. Jagadeesan, cashier; B. Saravanan, clerk and V. Mohan, appraiser.
Among them, Mohan was a temporary staff. They were working with the bank for more than a decade.
A complaint was registered with the Commercial Crime Investigation (CCI) wing of the Tamil Nadu police in Chennai by S. Kamalakannan, deputy registrar, Tamil Nadu State Apex Co-operative Bank (Cheyyar division) on Wednesday.
Action taken
Disciplinary action has also been taken against S. Kalyana Kumar, managing director of the Arani bank, by the TNSC Bank under Section 81 of Tamil Nadu Cooperative Societies Act, 1983.
“We are also attaching the assets of the suspended staff. They pledged fake jewellery every month for a year, mostly in their relatives and friends' names,” K. Rajkumar, Joint Registrar, TNSC Bank (Tiruvannamalai Region), said.
From September 10, 2020, the suspended staff had been pledging small quantities of fake jewellery in 27 bundles and swindled ₹ 2.39 crore.
In fact, of the total 4,600 gold loans that were disbursed since September 2020, 77 were given to fake jewellery that were pledged by them.
The action by the TNSC Bank was based on a circular issued by the registrar for cooperative societies directing the managing directors of the Tamil Nadu State Apex Cooperative Bank, Tamil Nadu Cooperative State Agriculture and Rural Development Bank, all Central cooperative banks and joint registrars of all zones, to form panel to scrutinise gold jewellery loans.
