Five officials including assistant branch manager of Muthoot Finance were arrested by Balasore police in connection with disappearance of gold ornaments weighing around 826 gms from the company’s locker.
The accused officials include assistant branch manager Prashant Kumar Panda, accounts assistant Arabinda Sahu, Sidhartha Bajpeyee, accounts executive Debadas Biswal and Tilottama Barik. They were produced in the court on Monday and remanded in judicial custody.
Police sources said acting on a written complaint lodged by the regional manager of the company at Bhubaneswar about disappearance of 11 packets of gold ornaments from the locker of the branch office at Police Line square here, the officials were apprehended.
The officials, however, defended themselves saying the gold ornaments worth over ` 20 lakh were found missing after a team of auditors left the branch. Panda said they had intimated the company higher ups about the incident.
“I was not present when they were busy for auditing records and gold ornament status. We suspect the auditors may have taken away the ornaments as they are allowed to enter the room where the locker is kept with bags. No other official of the company is allowed with bags,” he clarified.
Meanwhile, the police have written to the company authorities asking them to bring the auditors for interrogation. IIC of Sahadevkhunta police station Manoj Rout said the auditors who belonged to South India have been asked to appear.
“However, the assistant manager and cashier who have keys of the locker are responsible for the incident. Though as per their guideline, the manager should accompany the auditor all along the period. Why did he leave them alone? Still, we would interrogate the auditors once they arrive here,” he added.
Flourish India Office Raided
Jagatsinghpur: Police raided the branch office of Flourish India Private Limited on Monday. The company has been accused of cheating thousands of investors of over Rs 50 lakh.
Sources said the chit fund company had opened a branch in Jagatsinghpur a few years back and floated various schemes.
One of them was a monthly scheme which promised the investors that if they opt for daily deposit their amount would be doubled in three months. As the company did not provide any return to the depositors and closed the office, they lodged an FIR in the Jagatsinghpur police station.
IIC Sanjib Mohanty of the police station on Monday raided the branch office of the company and seized important documents and CDs before sealing the office.