By Express press service

BENGALURU: A 46-year-old director of a cooperative marketing society with its branch on Kanakapura Road in the city of Kanakapura has been arrested for deceiving bank customers by misusing gold ornaments they had promised to pay get a loan. According to the police, the accused took the ornaments from the lockers of the company and pawned them to other gold lending companies for his personal gain.

The incident erupted after one of the customers came to collect her ornaments after repaying the loan. Police identified the accused as G Govindappa. He is accused of abusing his powers and deceiving clients and society in order to invest in real estate. The complaint was filed by Nadeem, the company secretary.

A client identified as Venkatesh from Maralavadi approached the accused to return his ornaments as he had repaid the loan. Since there was no positive response, Venkatesh approached the other company officials. “The defendant is accused of misusing the gold ornaments of 267 customers. He promised nearly 8.5 kg of gold ornaments. The police recovered 7.113 kg of gold and cash worth a total of Rs 3.37 crore from the accused,” the police said.