An assistant manager in Bengaluru was arrested after allegedly stealing gold ornaments of several customers. The accused spent the money on online gambling, the police said. The estimated value of the stolen gold was over Rs 4 crore, according to the bank authorities. The stolen ornaments belonged to 15 customers of the reputed bank.
The accused, identified as Kiran Kumar E, was employed at the Girinagar Branch of the Indian Bank. A complaint was filed against Kiran by Chief Manager Dileep Kumar, based on whose statements, the arrest was made.
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The matter first gained attention on February 2, when a customer reached the bank to close her gold loan. As she was getting her pledged ornaments released, she found some of her jewels missing.
Tampered Packets, Vanished Jewels
As per Dileep, the authorities immediately carried out a stock verification on the 207 packets of gold ornaments since last year. Upon conducting a search, they found 24 packets were tampered with. While gold from some of the packets was partially missing, the yellow metal had completely vanished from three of the packets, the Times of India reported.
Upon conducting an interrogation, Kiran confessed to stealing gold ornaments between June 2025 and January 2026. The police also found out that the accused pledged the gold ornaments with several private firms to gain financial benefits. As of now, the police have recovered around 1.2 kg of gold. Even as a few financial firms are not willing to cooperate, the police have decided to move the court for intervention.
How Bank Staff Misused His Official Powers
The bank authorities confirmed that the gold ornaments are stored in separate lockers and that only the bank manager and assistant manager have access to the lockers. Kiran allegedly misused his powers and stole the gold ornaments from the lockers.
Following the unexpected incident, the bank had requested the customers to carry out occasional checks on their lockers to ensure safety. The staff also revealed that Kiran stole from some selective lockers that were unattended for a long time.