Periyapatna:  The Bylakuppe Police have arrested a gold appraiser on charges of cheating banks and customers by authenticating counterfeit gold as real one. The accused has been identified as Shivaram of Mangaluru.

Commercial banks that grant loans against security of gold jewellery appoint jewel appraisers to find out the exact gold contents in the jewellery. He appraises jewellery and issues a certificate as to the gold contents in the jewellery and the bank grants loans as per his report. The appraiser is responsible for such scrutiny and certification.

Shivaram, who used to stay in hotels and conduct Karate and Yoga classes, was a gold appraiser and he used to operate in Periyapatna and Bylakuppe. Since four years, Shivaram has developed close friendship with SBI and Syndicate Bank Managers at Bylakuppe and gained their confidence, acting as a certified gold appraiser.

In Nov. 2015, Shivaram, who came along with a bank customer, convinced the Syndicate Bank Manager to sanction loan after pledging gold. Seeing Shivaram’s urgency, the Bank Manager got suspicious and got the gold pledged by the customer tested elsewhere. It was discovered that the gold that was supposed to be pledged for loans was fake.

Smelling a racket, the Bank Manager got all the gold pledged, through Shivaram, tested by different appraisers. To his shock, the Bank Manager discovered that all the jewellery was fake.

A complaint was lodged with the Police and investigations revealed that Shivaram cheated over 13 persons including vegetable vendors, petty shop owners, farmers and Anganawadi and School mid-day meal assistants to the tune of Rs. 11 lakh. Apart from that, he has also cheated six persons at SBI Bylakuppe branch to the tune of Rs.13 lakh.

Shivaram is also said to have duped SBI and other local banks and societies in Kushalnagar and surrounding areas. Realising the fraud, the Banks served notices to Shivaram asking him to return all the loans. But as Shivaram failed to do so, Syndicate Bank Manager Narayan Nayak and SBI Manager Siddesh Kumar lodged a complaint with Bylakuppe Police.

With the Police failing to act on the complaint, Shivaram moved the Karnataka High Court for advance bail. But the HC rejected his bail plea. Without any alternative, Shivaram appeared before the Periyapatna Court on Apr.13 when the Judge handed him over to judicial custody till Apr.27.

Shivaram is also said to have cheated over a dozen Bank customers to the tune of lakhs of rupees. Now with Shivaram in judicial custody, the Bylakuppe Police have moved the Periyapatna Court seeking his Police custody for investigation.