Customers dine on premises of SBI seeking justice in Mancherial
Customers of SBI's Chennur branch staged a protest by cooking food on the bank premises, demanding the return of pledged gold and silver ornaments. They alleged negligence by officials despite police recovering some ornaments linked to a major misappropriation case
Mancherial: Customers cooked food and ate it on the premises of the State Bank of India (SBI)-Chennur branch, protesting against the negligence of officials in returning their gold and silver ornaments on Monday.
The customers claimed that they were duped by the SBI after pledging gold and silver ornaments with the bank. They alleged that bank staff had misappropriated the ornaments. Some of the stolen ornaments were recovered by the police. However, SBI officials were not returning the ornaments, citing norms. They requested the officials to take steps to ensure justice for them.
The aggrieved customers said that they were forced to approach the bank to reclaim their gold and silver ornaments. They said they would intensify their stir until their pledged ornaments were returned.
In August last year, 47 persons, including a cashier, a manager and an attender of the SBI-Chennur branch, were arrested for their alleged role in the misappropriation of 21 kilograms of gold ornaments and Rs 1.10 crore in cash. Police seized 15.237 kilograms of gold ornaments and Rs 1.61 crore in cash from the accused. The fraud was exposed during an internal audit.
Narige Ravinder, the prime accused and cashier, confessed to taking assistance from Manohar, a manager, and Sandeep, an attender. He admitted to availing 142 loans by pledging gold ornaments at various lending firms in the names of 44 persons from Mancherial after losing Rs 40 lakh on online cricket betting platforms in 2024. More than 400 customers had pledged gold ornaments with the bank to avail loans.
