Vijayawada: A banker cheated farmers as well as the bank of nearly `1 crore and is on the run. The incident came to light at State Bank of India Paritala branch after farmers staged a protest in front of the bank.
According to reports, one of the bank officials cheated about 100 farmers who had sought loans pledging their gold. The scam came to light when a farmer reached the bank to get the gold he had pledged released.
He found out that the same gold had been pledged again by someone he was not familiar with and a new loan was taken.
As word spread, other farmers reached the bank and demanded that their gold be released. According to available data, as many as 700 farmers had pledged their gold with the bank over the past few months.
The bank manager spoke to the farmers and assured them that they had nothing to worry about and their gold was safe.
With the assurance, the farmers stopped their protest. A farmer expressed doubts about the safety of his gold and said that despite such a major fraud, the bank did not bother to inform them.
Kanchikacharla police said that no complaint was lodged by any customer of the bank against any bank officer.
They said that they will inquire about the allegations if any complaint was lodged.
