M F AHMED
Daltonganj, Nov. 5: A good chunk of the stolen gold mortgaged by the pilferers of the United Bank of India (UBI), Daltonganj to the ICICI bank, Daltonganj and Muthoot Finance, Ranchi is holding back the test identification parade among the 7 victims whose lockers in the UBI were broken and gold contents and other jewellery were stolen. This incident involved the active participation of the branch manager and deputy branch manager of the said bank.
According to the officer-in-charge of the town police station, Daltonganj, A K Mahatha, the town police had hoped to hold this parade of gold and gold contents in the last week of October but it was dashed when the court refused to grant permission when the entire consignment of stolen gold contents was not available.
The Chief Judicial Magistrate directed the police to get the mortgaged gold and gold contents with the two financial institutions first and then to go for the parade for the victims.
“We had planned to have one test identification parade for those gold and gold contents that were with the police after its due and legal retrieval at the far end of October but the court asked us to have one whole test identification parade and not in the piecemeal,” he said.
When asked about what the attitude of the ICICI bank Daltonganj and Muthoot finance Ranchi has towards remortgaging and releasing the said gold with them against which they granted a loan to the pilferers or their men, Mahatha said that it is not positive and looks like the issue will be dragged for a long time.
SP Palamu, Chandan Kumar Sinha, is monitoring the development of this case.
According to some sources, police will have to move against these two financial institutions within the legal framework as lawyers say they are well within their rights to hold the mortgaged gold till its loan with interest is paid back to them.
People who had stolen the gold and mortgaged it are accused of various offences under the sections of the IPC. They were remanded in judicial custody. Sources said their economic condition is not such as to get back their mortgaged gold and gold contents.
The 7 victims of lockers fraud are facing anxiety and tension as every passing day makes them unsure if they will ever get back their gold contents for which they paid locker rent every year to the bank only to get looted.
