CHENNAI: The lure of gold finally appears to have brought him face to face with his nemesis. Muthoot Fincorp senior executive M Senthil Kumar was arrested along with two autorickshaw drivers for staging an assault-and-gold coin robbery drama at Koyambedu on Wednesday to cover up misappropriation of a large quantity of gold coins over the last six months.The PlotOn Thursday Senthil Kumar (29), along with S Ramanathan (46), a staffer of the firm in Pollachi, arrived at the Koyambedu police station and lodged a complaint, alleging that they had collected three bags of gold coins, weighing 7 kg, from their head office at Choolaimedu the previous day. They said they got into an autorickshaw at Egmore to go to Koyambedu to board a bus to Coimbatore, when the driver stopped and picked up another man. Instead of going in the direction of CMBT, the driver stopped in a deserted lane near the Koyambedu check-post.Brandishing a knife, the driver asked them to hand over their gold chain and phones. Senthil Kumar claimed that when he resisted, he was attacked and that while Ramanathan managed to get out of the vehicle with two bags of gold coins, the driver took off before he could remove the third bag.The ProbeRegistering a case of robbery, six special police teams began probe into the case. Grilling Senthil Kumar, they soon found several discrepancies in his statements. “His claim that the driver took a lengthy detour lacked credibility, as he was not new to the city and he could have easily raised alarm on the busy road,” Joint Commissioner (West Zone) K Shanker said. “His claim that the driver threw chilli powder at them was also not convincing,” he said.Further inquiry into his links took the cops to S Appadurai of Choolaimedu, a former auto driver, who was now managing a tiffin stall set up by Senthil Kumar at Valasaravakkam. They also learnt that the executive, who had been with the company for the past five years, was the custodian of the gold coins in the company’s treasury. “Senthil Kumar was also in charge of distributing the gold coins to various centres of the company under a scheme,” the JCP said. “Since there was no auditing machinery in place, he misappropriated about 3 kg of gold coins over the last six months.” However, on learning that there was going to be an audit soon, he panicked. Since 7 kg of gold coins had to be taken to Coimbatore for distribution in the area, he tried to exploit the situation to cover up his fraud by enacting a robbery drama along with Appadurai and another driver S Raj (39), the officer said.The ActAs a first step, Senthil Kumar brought Ramanathan with him and, after plying him with drinks, asked him to sign a note at the company’s treasury showing that 7 kg of gold coins had been withdrawn. “In reality, it was only 3.5 kg and the stolen bag contained only 272 gm of gold coins,” Shanker said.At the ‘scene of crime’, Senthil Kumar and his two accomplices allowed Ramanathan to escape with the two bags. He gave the 272 gm of coins in his bag to his friends and arrived at the police station to complain that he had been robbed of a bag containing 2 kg gold coins. “His plan was to cover up the shortfall in the treasury caused by his misappropriation by faking a robbery,” the JCP said. He and his two accomplices were arrested and the 272 gm of gold coins recovered.
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