Stolen gold recovery hits hurdle

Kakinada: The mushroom growth of financial companies extending a loan facility on gold jewellery to the maximum extent turned out as a stumbling block for police in recovering stolen gold jewellery. The financial companies provide the pledge facility for duration of three months and issue notices after completion of this period to the borrower giving one month grace time.

Failing on part of the borrower the pledged articles will go for auction. The offenders involved in theft cases are said to be using this facility to avoid immediate police attention. The offenders readily provide Aadhaar identification and obtain maximum benefit on the stolen jewellery as these companies extend 80 to 85 per cent loan on existing gold price in the market at the date of pledge.

According to police sources, in the last one year the local police in three different investigations found gold pledged in different gold finance companies to the tune of about two kilos of gold jewellery. Of these three, the latest recovery has been to the tune of 894 grams worth Rs 22.35 lakh, on October 1st.

But it was found that gold jewellery to the extent of 350 grams was pledged in a private finance company at Jaggampeta, Samarla Kota and Peddapuram branches of the private company (Manappuram Fiancé private Limited as per police records) more than four months ago. By the time the police approached the firm the articles were auctioned on the reasons that the borrowers failed to release the articles.

As far as public sector banks are concerned, the procedure they adopt is one year for agriculture gold loans and six months for general loans as per the consent of the borrower. Kakinada Central Crime Station (CCS), DSP Pitta Somasekher is of the opinion that the private gold loan extension firms should extend the period of auction from the present three months period. When we catch hold of tire offenders in recovery process, of late we have been noticing the shift by these offenders from outright sale of stolen gold articles to avert our attention, the DSP said.

Once the property is auctioned, the owner of the indemnified property who lost in the theft will have to approach the court of law with their own expenses which is not an easy task for common man, the police officer observed. While contacting the manager of a local gold finance company who does not want to be quoted he said that they follow the norms and obtain Aadhaar proof at the time of extending the gold loan.

As we provide a loan to a maximum extent up to 85 per cent, our norms will not permit us to wait for longer periods, he said. East Godavari lead bank district manager B V Subramanyam said that generally farmers approach RHEA scheduled banks and the duration will be for one year on agriculture gold loans, he clarified.