Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Oct 5: Through a judgment delivered on Tuesday October 4, a local court sentenced three persons to rigorous imprisonment of two years each for defrauding the bank by pledging ornaments made of spurious gold.

Usha G Nayak (32), her husband, Govindaraj Nayak (42), and jewellery appraiser of the bank, Dinesh Acarya (30), were held guilty in the case and sent to jail.

Govindaraj Nayak and his wife had conspired with Dinesh Acharya, who was working as jewellery appraiser for Kavoor branch of Corporation Bank in the city, and applied for a gold loan of Rs 40,000 in the name of Usha Nayak by pledging bangles made of material which looked like gold, on July 21, 2007. The then manager of the bank, Frederick Samuel Soans, grew suspicious about the genuineness of the ornaments and got the same reappraised through the jewellery appraiser of another branch of the bank. After finding that the ornaments were made of gold-plated copper, a complaint of fraud and cheating was registered against the trio.

After a charge sheet was filed, the case was heard, and judgment was delivered by the first chief judicial magistrate here, Basavaraj, on Tuesday. He also imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 each on the guilty, with a condition that  failure to pay fine will entail additional three months in jail.

Senior assistant public prosecutor, Ajitkumar D Hamigi, argued the case on behalf of the prosecution. It is learnt that two more cases relating to availing of loans by pledging spurious gold ornaments are pending hearing against Govindaraj Nayak.