44 Arrested in Multi-Crore SBI Gold Loan Scam
31 Aug 2025 8:38 PM IST31 Aug 2025 8:38 PM IST
According to the Ramagundam police commissioner Amber Kishore Jha, the scam was orchestrated by bank cashier Ravinder, following his heavy debt caused by online cricket betting.
Ramagundam police commissioner A.K. Jha giving details of the fraud at the SBI Chennur branch on Sunday. — DC
Karimnagara: After losing a large sum of money and unable to repay his loans, a bank cashier dipped into the vaults and allegedly took away Rs 1.1 crore in cash and 25.17 kg gold said to be worth Rs12.16 crore. Based on a complaint, the police arrested cashier Narige Ravinder of the SBI branch at Chennur in Mancherial district, and 43 persons including two other bank staff.
According to the Ramagundam police commissioner Amber Kishore Jha, the scam was orchestrated by bank cashier Ravinder, following his heavy debt caused by online cricket betting.
The fraud came to light when SBI regional manager Ritesh Kumar Gupta lodged a complaint about the disappearance of 25.17 kg of gold and cash of Rs1.1 crore from the bank vaults. The value of the stolen gold was estimated to be Rs12.16 crore.
Cashier Ravinder was arrested after a quick investigation revealed suspicious, large-scale deposits in his bank account. Ravinder confessed to having lost Rs 40 lakh in online cricket betting and said he devised a plan to recover his losses by stealing from the bank.
Police found out that he committed the fraud in collusion with branch manager Vennapureddy Manohar and outsourced employee Lakkakula Sandeep. “The manager gave the key for the joint currency chest to Ravinder, which enabled the cashier to regularly remove mortgaged gold and cash from October 2024 onwards.”
Ravinder gave the stolen gold to his friends Beeraiah, Rajashekar and Kishan who worked at private gold lending companies. They pledged the gold at private finance companies. In total, they took 142 gold loans on behalf of 44 persons. They transferred the cash to Ravinder after keeping a commission for themselves.
Ravinder and branch manager Manohar sanctioned 42 fake gold loans in the names of the cashier’s family members without any gold being mortgaged. This yielded an additional `1.58 crore in fraudulent withdrawals, as if 4.14kg of gold had been mortgaged.
Commissioner Jha said, “We formed four teams to investigate the case and arrested 44 persons. We recovered 15.23 kg of gold ornaments and Rs1,61,730 in cash. A substantial amount of gold is yet to be recovered from several finance companies.”
The police are also investigating the role of managers at these private lending companies, he added.
The fraud came to light when SBI regional manager Ritesh Kumar Gupta lodged a complaint about the disappearance of 25.17 kg of gold and cash of Rs1.1 crore from the bank vaults. The value of the stolen gold was estimated to be Rs12.16 crore.
Cashier Ravinder was arrested after a quick investigation revealed suspicious, large-scale deposits in his bank account. Ravinder confessed to having lost Rs 40 lakh in online cricket betting and said he devised a plan to recover his losses by stealing from the bank.
Police found out that he committed the fraud in collusion with branch manager Vennapureddy Manohar and outsourced employee Lakkakula Sandeep. “The manager gave the key for the joint currency chest to Ravinder, which enabled the cashier to regularly remove mortgaged gold and cash from October 2024 onwards.”
Ravinder gave the stolen gold to his friends Beeraiah, Rajashekar and Kishan who worked at private gold lending companies. They pledged the gold at private finance companies. In total, they took 142 gold loans on behalf of 44 persons. They transferred the cash to Ravinder after keeping a commission for themselves.
Ravinder and branch manager Manohar sanctioned 42 fake gold loans in the names of the cashier’s family members without any gold being mortgaged. This yielded an additional `1.58 crore in fraudulent withdrawals, as if 4.14kg of gold had been mortgaged.
Commissioner Jha said, “We formed four teams to investigate the case and arrested 44 persons. We recovered 15.23 kg of gold ornaments and Rs1,61,730 in cash. A substantial amount of gold is yet to be recovered from several finance companies.”
The police are also investigating the role of managers at these private lending companies, he added.
( Source : Deccan Chronicle )
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