WARANGAL: Employees of the Warangal branch of AP Mahesh Co-operative Urban Bank Limited, also known as Mahesh Bank, were allegedly defrauded through the pledging of fake gold ornaments for loans totalling Rs 43.50 lakh. The matter came to light on Thursday after audit staff from the bank’s Hyderabad head office noticed discrepancies and lodged a complaint with the Intezargunj police on Wednesday night.
According to Intezargunj Inspector MA Shukur, Deputy General Manager K Chandra Prakash from the head office visited the Warangal branch as part of the annual audit. During verification, he found that 278 grams of gold ornaments were spurious and lodged a formal complaint.
The complaint stated that branch manager K Shiva Krishna and officer Ramu Sharma were responsible for the gold loan accounts.
Shiva Krishna is alleged to have colluded with cashier Jeevan Kumar in sanctioning a gold loan of Rs 8 lakh to V Lakshmi Shirisha from Guntur on March 17, against 145 grams of gold, of which 114 grams were found to be fake.
A second loan of Rs 18.50 lakh was given to Shravan Kumar of Warangal on April 22, against 314.45 grams of gold ornaments. Of this, 119 grams were missing and the remaining 195.5 grams were found to be spurious.
In another case, Rs 17 lakh was sanctioned to T Rajitha from Hanamkonda on April 24, 2025, against 278 grams of gold ornaments, all of which were later confirmed to be fake by the bank’s gold inspection team.
The branch manager, along with gold loan appraisers G Brahma Chary and P Rajamouli from Warangal, and V Karunakar from Karimnagar, were involved in the processing of the loans against the fake ornaments.
All three gold loan packets and associated documents were sealed by the audit team and are now in the bank’s custody.