MADURAI: Observing that usury is a huge menace to society, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has ordered the transfer of a loan harassment case — in which the petitioner has claimed to have paid Rs 2.26 crore for Rs 2 lakh loan in two-and-a-half years — from the Madurai city police to the CB-CID.
“The police, who were expected to take action by registering a case against the accused, were hand in glove with the rich, powerful and influential financiers,” Justice B Pugalendhi said while ruling on a petition filed by C Elango of Madurai.
The petitioner had availed the loan when his software firm incurred losses owing to the pandemic. After facing continuous harassment and being allegedly charged exorbitant interest, Elango complained with the Tallakulam police in November 2023 seeking to register an FIR against some persons, including financier Karthick Selvam.
“The financier allegedly took away Elango’s bike and car. There was also pressure on Elango to transfer his company to the financiers’ names,” the petition said. Since the police took no action, Elango approached the Deputy Commissioner of Police (North), who forwarded the complaint to Tallakulam police. As there was still no progress on his complaint, he approached Judicial Magistrate II of Madurai and the judge directed that an FIR be registered.
The additional public prosecutor submitted that the value of the complaint was over Rs 50 lakh, and hence, Tallakulam police transferred the case to the Central Crime Branch (CCB).
Police hand in glove with the rich: HC
However, the CCB submitted to the district court that the complaint was civil in nature. So the judge ordered Tallakulam police to register an FIR and conduct an investigation. A case was then registered in July 2024 against nine persons under various sections of the IPC and Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Charging Exorbitant Interest Act, 2003.
Noting that it took the CCB over four months to realise that the complaint was civil, the court said, “Demanding exorbitant interest is a menace to society and this related offence is reported more in southern districts.” The judge added that the police were hand in glove with the rich, powerful and influential financiers.
Though an FIR has been registered, considering the manner in which this petitioner’s complaint was dealt with by the police, the court suo motu impleaded the DGP as a respondent and directed him to transfer the same to CB-CID, Madurai, or Virudhunagar.