Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The city crime branch on Friday arrested five persons including former branch manager and ex-assistant branch manager of a finance company in Indrapuri, who misappropriated funds worth Rs 4.34 crore within a period of one for personal enrichment. The company offered loan against gold mortgaged by customers.
According to crime branch officials, complainant Nemichandra Sharma, the manager of Indrapuri branch of finance company, approached crime branch officials, stating that the suspended branch manager Sanjay Saini, suspended assistant manager Ajay Pal Singh Rajput, misappropriated funds worth Rs 4.34 crore belonging to the company. Three other accused were also named by Sharma, after which the crime branch began probing the case.
The crime branch finally arrested Sanjay Saini from his residence in Gautam Nagar. He told officials that he was influenced by lavish lifestyle of his neighbour Ravishankar Rajput. When he asked Rajput about the secret of his wealth, Rajput told him that he placed bets on gaming apps. Saini too was influenced by this, and began betting hefty amounts of money on the apps. Initially, he earned hefty sum on investing up to Rs 20,000.
Following this, he decided to bet larger amount of money, for which he drew funds from the finance company where he worked. When he lost hefty amounts, he sold gold ornaments mortgaged by the customers at the company to get loan and used it on bets.
Saini told police that he used to obtain loan repayment money from the customers who had mortgaged their gold at the branch but he never deposited that money in the branch. He used that money to bet online. To get more money, he produced fake loan applications in the name of his family members, friends and acquaintances.
In the process, he misappropriated Rs 4.34 crore and was assisted by Ajay Pal Singh. Three other employees of the company Ravishankar Rajput, Sandeep Patel and Farhan Khan also contributed to the fraud. They were arrested by the crime branch team. The officials have seized laptops, cell phones and other electronic gadgets from them and are questioning them at present.
