Khordha, Nov 5: A senior employee of the State Bank of India’s Balugaon branch has allegedly embezzled gold jewelry and cash worth nearly ₹77 lakh, kept by customers as collateral. The complaint was lodged at Balugaon police station.

According to the complaint submitted on August 5 by Balugaon SBI Branch Manager Sushant Kumar, the then Senior Assistant (Cash Incharge) Jitendra Kumar Biswal reportedly suffered heavy losses in online trading. To cover these losses, he allegedly misappropriated 12 packets of gold jewelry belonging to customers and deposited them in multiple local financial institutions, while also taking ₹6.27 lakh deposited in the SBI ATM and ₹75,000 in cash from the branch.

Surprisingly, Biswal himself informed the SBI Circle Chief General Manager in Bhubaneswar on July 27 and the Balugaon Branch Manager via letter on July 29 that he had absconded. In the letter, he stated that he had been under severe mental stress due to online trading losses and feared he might even attempt suicide, but was ready to face any legal consequences arising from the embezzlement.

The Balugaon police have registered the case under number 235/25 and are investigating the matter. Branch Manager Sushant Kumar assured that affected customers will be fully compensated for their losses.