Udupi: Two persons have been nabbed by the Shirva police regarding the fake gold jewelry pledging, which is a suspected cause for the family suicide case in Padubelle.
The accused are identified as Umesh Amin (43), the manager of Innanje C A Bank Kunjargiri branch and Umesh Acharya (49), who was the jewel appraiser of the bank. Both have been remanded to judicial custody.
Police have also seized 3.370 kilograms of fake gold worth Rs 62.5 lakh and 28 grams of real gold worth Rs 55,000 from the bank relating to the case.
Shankaracharya (50), a gold jewelry shop owner in Padubelle, his wife Nirmala Acharya (45), and their daughters, Shruthi Acharya (24), an MBA graduate, and Shreya Acharya (21), an MCA student, had allegedly committed suicide in their house in Padubelle on the morning of 13th July.
It is suspected that Shankaracharya availed the loan with the help from the arrested persons.
It has been gathered that Shankaracharya had deposited 2.7 kilograms gold ornaments with the bank in 92 transactions, and had taken loans to the tune of Rs. 64 lakh on these ornaments. However, on examination, the bank found that except for 150 grams of gold, the rest were silver ornaments for which gold plating had been given.
A complaint was filed by Manohar Rao, the chief executive officer of the bank to the police after discovering that the gold pledged was fake.
Shankaracharya got information about this on the afternoon of 12th July. Hence, the fear that this scam would get exposed might have prompted him to take the extreme step of commiting suicide.
“But this would have to be established by investigations whether he poisoned his family members or was it a joint action”, Mr. Balakrishna said.
Under the guidance of Kaup circle inspector Moorthy Rao, Shirva station officer Narasimha Shetty is investigating the case. Police personnel Dayanand, Damodar Acharya and Narayana are helping in the case