Chennur police crack ₹13.71 crore bank fraud case; cashier and manager among 44 arrested

The Chennur police in Mancherial district, on Sunday, cracked the sensational bank fraud case worth nearly ₹13.71 crore and arrested as many as 44 persons, including the cashier and manager of SBI-2 branch.

Police recovered 15.23 kgs of gold ornaments and cash of ₹1,61,730.

Three employees, Narige Ravinder, cashier, Vennapureddy Manohar, branch manager, and Lakkakula Sandeep, an outsourced employee, were among those arrested.

The fraud kingpin Ravinder, who reportedly incurred heavy losses in online cricket betting, ‘orchestrated’ the fraud in connivance with other accused to make up for his losses and continue online betting. He allegedly misappropriated 21 kg gold by colluding with the branch manager, police said.

The scam came to light over a week ago during an internal audit.

Acting on a complaint lodged by Ritesh Kumar Gupta, SBI Regional Manager, Chennur, on August 23, Chennur police registered a case and launched a detailed investigation, leading to the arrest of the kingpin and his accomplices.

Giving details of the case at a press conference in Ramagundam on Sunday, Police Commissioner Ambar Kishor Jha said that Ravinder, along with Manohar, swindled gold ornaments, pledged by customers, and cash from the bank’s main currency chest in different spells since October 2024.

He handed over these gold ornaments to his friends working in different private money lending companies, who, in turn, availed loans by pledging the gold in their respective private firms before transferring the amount to Ravinder by accepting commissions.

So far, the accused fraudulently mortgaged the gold ornaments in 10 private gold lending companies and obtained 142 gold loans in the name of 44 persons. Further, the two sanctioned 42 fake gold loans in the names of their family and friends, the Police Commissioner said.

The well-coordinated efforts and meticulous investigation by the police teams led to the recovery of gold from five private money lending companies, and efforts are on to recover the remaining jewellery.