Showroom manager escapes with 10 Kg gold

BANGALORE: The general manager of a gold showroom in the city in collusion with some of his colleagues has been accused of pocketing 10 kg gold bar worth  Rs. 2.9 crore, which was set aside for a scheme for the public, and other misappropriations. B Krishnan, a managing partner of Bhima Jewellers on Dickenson Road, has filed a cheating complaint on September 1 against general manager S Subramanya Tantry, assistant manager M K Sridhar, chief accountant Manjunath Adiga and head of ‘Suvaranadhara Bhima Gold Saving Scheme’ B N Achar along with two of the firm’s executives for pocketing the money belonging to the customers.The fraud came to light when Tantry along with his team gave in their resignation and later went missing from work even before resignation formalities were completed. They neither handed over their charges nor gave an explanation for accounts. The firm grew suspicious and asked the internal auditor to check the accounts. But auditor Sripathy Bhatt stopped coming to work without notice following which the firm appointed a new auditor.After a detailed scrutiny of the accounts, the new auditor P L Narendra found that six of the employees had gobbled up Rs 2, 96,02,484 belonging to various customers of the gold scheme. The accused collected cheques from the customers of the scheme, en-cashed it and also also pocketed 10 kgs of gold bar worth Rs 2.03 crore, Krishnan stated in his complaint. A detailed analysis of the documents found that Tantry and his associates forged and destroyed scheme related documents and even altered accounting software with the help of software source code to which they had access.The firm tried to contact the accused seeking an explanation regarding the loses, but availed no response. All in NumbersFraudulent closing of accounts belonging to members of the gold scheme resulted in a loss of account details and loss of Rs 42,28,500.Entering less amount in cash book receipts than actual installments received from customers resulted in the loss of Rs 22,86,000.  Cheques worth a total of Rs 27,71,000 collected from the members of scheme missing. Mysterious disappearance of 10 kg of gold bar worth Rs 2,03,16,984 delivered by Bank of Nova Scotia on December 21, 2010 and received by Tantry.