VIJAYAWADA: Kankipadu police on Friday arrested four people, who had decamped with gold ornaments from the Manappuram Financing Limited Kankipadu branch a few days ago.Branch manager Reddi Venkata Pavani (29), who is the prime accused in the case, and the others were presented in front of the media on Friday.
Addressing the media, Krishna district SP Palle Joshua stated that the accused Pavani, along with his friend Revu Durga Prasad (30), Kokkiligadda Naga Babu (22) and Mittagadukula Prashanthi (32) hatched a plan to decamp with gold pledged in the branch.
“The accused stole gold ornaments of 951 customers. The stolen gold worth is around Rs 3.87 crore and we have recovered 7.7 kg of gold. The accused also pledged around 2 kg of gold, belonging to customers of other banks, in Manappuram Financing Limited and took Rs 75 lakh. We are in the process of recovering the remaining gold,” SP Joshua maintained.
As per the information received, Pavani earlier worked in the Bantumilli branch of Manappuram Financing Company and was transferred to Kankipadu in January this year. During that period, Pavani became friends with Revu Durga Prasad of Kruthivennu mandal.She had granted Prasad a loan amount of more than Rs 45 lakh without pledging the gold in return.
“Whenever Durga Prasad was in need of money, he used to contact Pavani for help. In return, she used to grant him the loan from the company without pledging any gold, which is a gross violation. This continued for more than a year and it never came into anyone’s notice.”
When Prasad came across a need for more money, Pavani hatched a plan to make away with the gold of people pledged in the branch and took help of Prasad and two others, including one branch staff. A case under relevant sections has been registered against them, he lamented.