Three Bank of Baroda officials held for gold-loan racket in Jangareddygudem

Police have arrested three officials of the Bank of Baroda (BOB) for allegedly misusing their official powers and committing irregularities in gold loan accounts at the bank’s Jangareddygudem branch in Eluru district.

The arrested officials were Kumarapu Bhaskar Rao, then branch manager, T. Ajay Babu, joint manager, and J. Sairaj, credit officer, Eluru district Superintendent of Police K. Pratap Shiva Kishore said.

Earlier, the police had arrested gold appraiser Chalapaka Raju and recovered about 4.120 kg of gold ornaments and ₹10 lakh in cash from his possession, Jangareddygudem Deputy Superintendent of Police B.H. Venkateswarlu said.

The investigation had established the involvement of the bank officials in the alleged racket and evidence had been gathered in this regard, Mr. Venkateswarlu said.

“The kingpin of the racket Raju, colluded with the other accused, replaced the original gold ornaments in the lockers with fake ones and looted the jewellery,” the DSP said.

“We are conducting a detailed investigation into the scam. The police are verifying records, accounts and the bank books issued to customers. The role of others, if any, is also being probed,” the SP told the media on Wednesday.