Telangana Police nab Kerala bank manager on the run

Kozhikode, Aug 19 (IANS) An alert Telangana Police has nabbed a former Vadakara branch manager of Bank of Maharashtra, who was on the run after a major fraud was detected.

The former manager will soon be brought to Kozhikode by the special team of Kerala Police after they take him into custody from Telangana Police.

Last week, Vadakara Police in Kozhikode district registered a case against M. Jayakumar, the outgoing branch manager, based on a complaint by the new manager.

The new manager, Ershad, found things amiss when he saw the pledged gold which was found to be artificial gold.

On further inspection there appeared to be a big scam and Ershad approached the Police.

Jayakumar, while being on the run, posted a video stating he was pressured by the bank’s higher-ups to extend gold loans against the rules of the bank to a private finance company.

Kerala Police swung into the action and got in touch with the police of neighbouring states and soon, he fell into the hands of the alert Telangana Police who zeroed in on him after a detailed probe based on the video that he posted and which was telecast by a few Kerala TV news channel.

A resident of Tamil Nadu, Jayakumar was the manager of Vadakara branch of Bank of Maharashtra and he was transferred to their branch at Kochi.

Following the transfer Ershad joined. Even after several days, Jayakumar failed to join his new posting and by that time Ershad had found some serious discrepancies in the pledged gold.

According to the findings, 26 kilograms of pledged gold was found to be artificial. The loss to the bank was around Rs 17 crore.

With the case already cracked with the arrest of Jayakumar, the special Kerala Police team, after detailed questioning of Jayakumar, is expected to come out on how such a massive fraud was conducted.

–IANS

sg/kvd