Loan recovery agents fear none

Hyderabad: Bank loans are not only a nagging worry in your day-to-day life, they can even put your life at risk.

This is precisely what Hyderabad resident Y Yadaiah's family realised when the recovery agents of the local branch of ICICI Bank allegedly beat the 42-year-old Andhra government employee to death while trying to recover a loan of just Rs 15,000.

Police at Punjagutta, Hyderabad, arrested four persons in connection with the death of Yadaiah on Tuesday on the basis of a complaint filed by his wife, who alleged that her husband was tortured to death on Sunday. The case was registered on Monday under Sections 342 (wrongful confinement) and 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of IPC.

The police made the arrests immediately after receiving the post-mortem report. The four accused have been identified as Sundar Babu, Ramesh and Sridhar — partners of the recover agency — and Raju, an executive.

Punjagutta police station Inspector G Narsaiah said that investigation had revealed that Raju had picked up Yadaiah from a bus stop near Yapral on Friday and forcibly took him to his office in Ameerpet to recover the loan amount.

Later, the agency’s three partners confined Yadaiah in their office and threatened him of dire consequences if he failed to repay the loan amount immediately. Narasaiah claims the bank agents had admitted to having taken Yadaiah to their office in Ameerpet and asking him to clear his debts.

The loan recovery agency, Elite Financial Services, which has a tie-up with the ICICI Bank, claimed Yadaiah had collapsed due to fits in its office and died after being shifted to a hospital. Yadaiah was an electrician in the medical and health department,

ICICI Bank said Yadaiah had said he was feeling "unwell" when he had gone to the office of Elite Financial Services "for making payments of overdue installments". It said Elite's representatives provided "all possible support for his medical treatment".

The bank admitted that it was a case of loan default. "Yadaiah had taken a personal loan from the bank and he was unable to pay installments for the last six months. We tried to contact him at the given address where he was not available," ICICI Bank said in a statement.

The bank said: "Yadaiah had come to the office of our agency for making payments of the overdue installments. We were informed that during his interaction with the representative of the agency, he felt unwell and requested to be accompanied to a doctor."

The bank claimed the agency's representatives had provided all possible support for his medical treatment. "We shall extend all possible support and cooperation to investigating agencies during the course of investigation," the bank said.

Members of the Credit Card Holders Association protested in front of the bank on Monday in protest against the incident and demanded that the Reserve Bank cancel its license as the bank violated a recent Supreme Court order, which had asked banks not to employ 'goons' as recovery agents.