The police on Monday arrested seven persons, including the gold appraiser of a private sector bank, on the charge of cheating the bank to the tune of Rs. 13.5 lakh. The police said that Dharmaraj (53) of Selvapuram was working as the appraiser at Ramanathapuram branch of Karnataka Bank for about five years. He made some of his friends to pledge about 700gm of gold coated jewellery between August 2013 and July 2014.
As the loan amount was not repaid, the bank decided to auction the jewellery. Bank manager Ramasamy came to know that they were not gold.
Based on a complaint lodged by the manager the police registered the case under sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 109 (abetment) of the Indian Penal Code.
