BENGALURU : In a classic case of the fence eating the crop, a few employees of KLM Axiva Finvest Ltd, a finance firm, allegedly siphoned off Rs 85.78 lakh by looting gold ornaments pledged by customers in their branches, and raising loans by pledging the stolen ornaments in other branches.
The accused employees allegedly colluded with each other and availed of loans by pledging stolen gold ornaments and creating fake loan accounts. According to the FIR registered by Lakshman C, regional manager of KLM Axiva Finvest Ltd., with Konanakunte police on December 14, 2023, nine accused were booked.
Manteswamy, working as manager of the Konanakunte branch of the firm, allegedly used Rs 17.92 lakh for personal use by creating fake documents for 14 gold loan accounts to show that 444.56gm gold was pledged. This apart, 23 fake gold loan accounts were created to show that 1,291.21 kg gold was pledged, though there was only 123gm of gold in the account, and the remaining gold ornaments were missing.
Manteswamy allegedly stole gold ornaments pledged by customers in his branch and gave them to Sagar, a customer, who in turn pledged 19.26gm gold ornaments for Rs 77,000, and 18gm gold ornaments for Rs 73,000 in the Brigade Millenium branch, by colluding with assistant branch manager Santosh.
Further, Manteswamy stole gold ornaments pledged by a customer in his branch, and handed them to Basavaraj, a customer, who in turn pledged them at Thalaghattapura branch of the firm by colluding with branch manager Pushpa BM.
Based on the complaint, Konanakunte police registered a case against Manteswamy, Pooja C, Pushpa B M, Santhosh Kumar, Ambika, Sagar, Basavaraj, Sindhu and Sakamma TK, under various provisions of the IPC. LXI Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge R Ravi on Tuesday rejected the anticipatory bail petitions filed by Santosh Kumar and Pooja, saying that powers to grant anticipatory bail have to be used sparingly in cases of economic offences, as per the ruling of the supreme court. The accused claimed they were innocent and they were falsely implicated in the case.