Chennai: The Central Crime Branch (CCB) arrested an assistant branch manager of Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) for pilfering 2,179g of gold jewellery pledged by customers, replacing the ornaments with fake jewellery and causing a loss of ₹3.09 crore to the bank. The cops haven’t recovered any stolen gold ornaments. The accused, Potnuru Murali Krishna, 34, a native of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh who was residing in Purasawalkam, was serving as assistant branch manager at the IOB branch in Ayanavaram. The case was registered following a complaint lodged on Aug 13 by Dineshkumar, branch manager of the Ayanavaram branch, with Chennai City Police Commissioner A Amalraj. The complainant stated that the accused had fraudulently removed pledged gold jewellery belonging to about 21 customers and substituted it with imitation ornaments.An investigation by the Bank Fraud Investigation Wing of the Central Crime Branch revealed that Murali Krishna had discreetly removed the pledged jewellery, weighing about 2,179g, and pledged it with a few other private gold financing firms to raise money. Police said the funds were used for online gaming and personal expenses.Following this, the CCB police team arrested Murali Krishna, and he was produced before a court and remanded in judicial custody.
