A scam involving serious irregularities in issuing gold loans has come to light in the Shimoga district central cooperative bank in Karnataka. The district crime intelligence bureau has taken five persons including four employees of the bank into custody and begun investigation.
According to an estimate, the scam has caused a loss of Rs 68 crore to the bank. The police have booked scamsters under section 406 and section 420 of Indian Penal Code.
According to the police, the loan was issued to 486 persons against fake gold and 183 persons without mortgaging the gold. As per the rules, 75 percent of the value of the gold mortgaged should be issued as loan. The amount of loan issued for 76 persons has exceeded this limit.
After the revelation of scam, hundreds of customers withdrew their money and gold deposited in the bank. An informed source was quoted saying customers had already withdrawn over Rs. 50 lakh from the bank.
This is one bank and one scam, in India this is used to in cooperative societies in case of gold loan. This can be possible only due to bad/no corporate governance in cooperative.