Bank staffer, 2 others held, 1 cr property seized

Kadapa: In a major breakthrough police arrested State Bank of India Ranga Samudram branch manager Marthala Guru Mohan Reddy, a resident of Prakashnagar of Proddaturu town, and his two accomplices Bhoomireddy Suresh Reddy of Perumallapalli village of Yadanaparthi mandal in Chittor district and Munlapathi Kumar, of Guptanagar in Badvel town on charges of withdrawing money and gold pledged by depositors in illegal manner. Police also recovered Rs 57 lakh cash, and 1.718 kg gold worth Rs 51.5 lakh, total Rs 1.08 crore, from the possession of the accused.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, additional SP (operations) Adnan Nayeem said that the prime accused in this case M Guru Mohan Reddy had been working as cash in-charge in SBI Ranga Samudram branch in Porumamilla mandal.

The SP said that the accused was engaged in share market business with a north India- based company called Jarodha and was making money transactions through his wife Manjula’s accounts which are in Ranga Samudram branch of the SBI and HDFC bank branch at Proddatiru town .

However, Guru Mohan Reddy incurred huge losses in the share market. In order recover his losses through fraud, he hatched a plan and according to it, he stole the gold ornaments pledged by customers from the security lockers of the SBI bank branch and replaced them with fake jewellery. The then mortgaged the stolen gold ornaments with IIFL and borrowed money.

He also frequently stole cash while feeding it into ATMs. According to the additional SP, Guru Mohan Reddy stole Rs 91 lakh cash from the bank on March 28 this year and fled along with his wife. The duo had been on the run taking shelter at various places, including Chennai, with the help of B Srresh Reddy and M Kumar for some days.

Following complaint lodged by bank authorities, the police who launched a detailed probe by forming a special party, finally arrested the accused at Kadapa RTC bus stand late on Monday night.