After so many loan scams in the past few years, many may rightly think a borrower can get away after defaulting on crores of rupees. But small borrower may have no such luck. While runaway diamond merchant Nirav Modi gamed the banking system for huge amounts of money, an innocent borrower landed in trouble for defaulting on just Re 1.
A cooperative bank in Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, held back 169 grams of gold worth Rs 3.5 lakh of a customer all because he had defaulted on payment of 1, TOI has reported. And it wasn't as if he did not want to pay that one rupee. Failing to get back his gold after running from pillar to post for five years, the customer has now dragged the cooperative bank to the court.
C Kumar, a customer of Pallavaram branch of Kancheepuram Central Co-operative Bank, initially pledged 31 g of gold jewellery on April 6, 2010, and availed himself of a loan of Rs 1.23 lakh. On March 28, 2011, he settled the loan along with interest. But the bank record showed Rs 1 was pending.
Thereafter, on February 9, 2011, he pledged 85 g of gold jewellery and obtained a loan of Rs 1.05 lakh. On February 28, 2011, the petitioner once again pledged 53 g of gold jewellery and obtained Rs 60,000 as loan. Though he repaid both the loans shortly thereafter, the loan accounts were also kept alive with 1 each as the balance.
According to M Sathyan, counsel for the petitioner, after repeated requests made by the petitioner the bank refused to release the jewellery or accept the payment of the pending 1 for each account. Police had also registered a criminal case against the bank for the alleged malpractices. The petitioner is in doubt with regard to the safety of his jewels. Hence, the present writ petition, Sathyan added.
Recently, Kumar was informed that the police had registered a criminal case against the bank in connection with certain malpractices. Immediately, the petitioner approached the police station concerned When the plea came up for hearing on Friday, Justice T Raja directed the government advocate to get instructions from the authorities within two weeks.
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