New Delhi: All you need to do is have an identity proof and fill a declaration form to mortgage the gold you have with Muthoot. This hassle-free procedure of mortgaging without if's and but's is now being exploited by snatchers and thieves to mortgage their stolen yellow gold at Muthoot.
After two snatchers were nabbed by Delhi Police in Nizamuddin, the cops said that the too simple procedure helped the snatchers to choose Muthoot over local jewellery shops to mortgage snatched gold chains and walk away with money. Four of the total 11 gold chains recovered by the snatcher duo have been mortgaged at Muthoot and a loan of whopping Rs 88,000 was taken from its Mayur Vihar branch in Delhi.
"The problem lies with the procedure as Muthoot does not do any verification from where the gold is coming from. They just ask the potential customer to fill a declaration form and mortgage their gold items.
In this case, they took the identity proof of the depositors after the declaration that they dont have bills of the gold items and the gold belongs to them," said Chinmoy Biswal, DCP South East.
This isn't the first case where snatchers have been caught mortgaging their stolen items at Muthoot. However, it seems that procedure is too meek to allow even thieves and snatchers to take a loan against the stolen gold item. Now, the police will verify the jurisdiction of the four gold chains that have been mortgaged by the two snatchers Rahul and Zubair.
"The duo, however, submitted their original id proofs at the Muthoot branch, we will now intimate the police station from where the mortgaged 4 gold chains were snatched and a due procedure would be followed," said a senior police officer.
However, to keep the robbers, snatchers and burglars at bay, some stringent rules need to be followed by the company to do proper verification of the depositor so that the simplicity of procedure for genuine people is not exploited by criminals.