Two employees of Erode Cooperative Urban Bank held for misappropriating gold jewellery

ERODE: The branch manager of Erode Cooperative Urban Bank Limited in Municipal Colony here and a jewellery appraiser were arrested on Monday for misappropriating eight kilograms of gold ornaments pawned by the public.

The arrested have been identified as bank branch manager B Kathiravan, 55, and jewellery appraiser P Ramesh Kumar, 46. Both are residents of Erode city. Police launched a search for Kathiravan's associate, Senthil Kumar, 52, who was absconding.On Oct 24, officials from the bank's headquarters conducted an inspection of the loan accounts. They discovered a discrepancy between the quantity of jewellery pawned by the public and the corresponding loan amount.

The officials filed a complaint with the Erode Government Hospital police. According to the preliminary investigation by the police, Ramesh Kumar, who has served as a jewellery appraiser in the bank for more than 15 years, colluded with bank manager Kathiravan to misappropriate eight kg of gold jewellery that had been pawned by the public."We have arrested Kathiravan and Ramesh Kumar based on the findings of our investigation. We have started efforts to nab Kathiravan's associate, Senthil Kumar. We have taken measures to recover the eight kilograms of gold jewellery from the suspects,” said a police officer.