Stolen gold pledged; original owner, gold loan company get to share interim custody

S Shyam Prasad | NT

Bengaluru: The High Court has allowed a gold loan company and the original owner of some gold jewellery to keep an equal share of the ornaments in interim custody. The gold weighing 1,212 grams was stolen and sold by a third party. A lower court had ordered both the original owner and the gold loan company to return the gold to their custody, which was challenged in the High Court.

The HC, however, set aside the lower court order and allowed the two parties to keep a share each while the criminal case was pending. “The order passed by the learned magistrate without any proper reason, cancelling the interim custody of the ornaments until disposal of the main case merely because there were rival claimants, is not sustainable in law,” the HC said in its judgement.

A gold bar weighing 1,212 grams was pledged with Muthoot Finance Limited, Hennur Main Road, by a person who took Rs 30 lakh in a loan on it. Kausar Khaleem, from HBR Layout, filed a complaint that the gold belonged to her and was stolen and pledged with Muthoot.

She approached the HC, which directed the Magistrate to release the ornaments that were in her interim custody. The magistrate, on March 18, 2020, released four items to her. The other eight items she claimed to be hers were not released as she could not provide documents for them.

Muthoot claimed custody of the other items, and 10 ornaments were released by the magistrate court to the company. Kausar Khaleem filed one more plea before the magistrate to release the other ornaments to her. The magistrate court, however on February 19, 2022, directed both Kausar and Muthoot to deposit the jewels released to them with the court.

This order was challenged by Muthoot in the High Court. Justice K Natarajan in his judgment set aside the February 2022 order of the magistrate court and allowed both Muthoot and Kausar Khaleem to keep the interim custody of the gold ornaments already in their custody till the case was disposed of.