KOCHI: Preetha Shaji, a homemaker who was evicted from her ancestral property for non-repayment of a loan for which her husband stood surety, handed over a demand draft of Rs 43,51,362.85 to the standing counsel of HDFC Bank on Saturday. A Division Bench of the High Court had on February 19 cancelled the auction of the property and directed Preetha Shaji to pay Rs 43,51,362.85.
“We had issued an appeal to the public last week, requesting them to contribute money as an interest-free loan to help Preetha Shaji redeem her property. The response was overwhelming. We were able to raise the amount within five days. We handed over a demand draft for the said amount drawn from the Ernakulam District Cooperative Bank to the standing counsel for HDFC Bank at 4 pm on Saturday.
We’ll repay the people who helped us
THOUGH Preetha Shaji’s advocate Titus Mani met the lawyer representing Ratheesh Narayanan, who bought the property through auction to hand over `1.89 lakh, based on the High Court order, he refused to accept the demand draft and told us to remit the amount in the court. “We will inform the court about the developments on Monday,” Anti Sarfaesi People’s Movement leader V C Jenny told Express. Sajan, who defaulted on the loan, leading to the eviction of Preetha’s family, had assured the CPM district committee that he would pay the amount fixed by the court to ensure Preetha gets her property back.
Once Sajan returns the amount, we will repay the people who came forward to help Preetha, said Jenny. Preetha’s family had been running from pillar to post for the past two decades to avoid auctioning of the property. Shaji had stood guarantee for a `2 lakh loan taken by his relative Sajan from Lord Krishna Bank, mortgaging his 22 cents of land at Pathadipalam in 1994.