look news india
Mumbai: Police have arrested three employees of a finance company for stealing 29 kg gold worth Rs 21 crore from a bank locker. These include the company's area head and branch manager. These people sold the stolen gold and took a loan on it and invested the money in the stock market. The entire incident came to light when the finance company conducted an audit and found that the gold was missing. When the company officials questioned these people about the matter, the accused allegedly threatened them that they were associated with the underworld.
In this case, the city crime branch has arrested the company's Dombivali branch manager Shivkumar Iyer (30), area head Shivaji Patil (29) and bullion trader Sachin Salunke (41). Police have registered a case against all these people under various sections of BNS like cheating, criminal breach of trust, fraud, criminal conspiracy and misappropriation of money.
In this regard, Akash Pachlod, an official of gold loan company Rover Finance Limited, has lodged a complaint with the police. Rover Finance acquired the loan division of Trillion Loan Fintech Private Limited in 2024. An audit conducted by Rover Finance in April revealed that 260 packets containing 29 kg of gold jewellery accepted as collateral by the company in bank lockers were missing. The keys to the lockers were with Patil and Iyer. When questioned about the missing gold, the accused first tried to exaggerate the issue. However, later Iyer reportedly admitted that he had invested the amount in the stock market with the intention of earning more profits along with Patil from January 2024.
This amount was invested by Salekhe who took a loan from the bank against the amount of gold. This amount was divided between Patil and Iyer in which Patil got Rs. 40 lakhs while Iyer got Rs. 8.7 crores. Iyer said that he faced huge losses in the stock market.
When the prosecutors met Iyer in Andheri on June 4, they questioned him about the amount of gold. At this time, if Iyer complained to the police, he threatened the complainant by claiming that he was acquainted with the underworld. Eventually, the company filed a case at the Sakinaka police station. The company had alleged in the complaint that Iyer and Patil secretly removed 260 packets of gold jewellery from the locker between January and April. When the police examined Iyer's bank statement, it became clear that he had invested money in the stock market with Salunkhe.
