Poor families in the city struggling to make both ends meet have been urged not to fall prey to ruthless loan sharks, known as the blade mafia. In spite of police efforts to crack down on the mafia, the illegal lenders from the border areas of the state are thriving in the poor residential colonies of the city.
Most of the victims are women from these colonies and also coastal belts. Due to the lack of sufficient documents, the poor are unable to get bank loans, as a result of which most of them turn to these moneylenders, from whom money reaches your doorsteps and far more easily than from banks.
The illegal moneylenders are based mostly in the border areas, especially Kaliyikkavila and Nagercoil, but carry out their business here. However, they demand exorbitant rates of interest for the money they lend.
Hundreds of people from both colonies and coastal belt are now under the threat of losing their properties as they have taken loans from these ‘sharks’.
Most of them have borrowed money for doing some Onam business as the festival is just around the corner. “At a time like this when we can get profit out of our business, we have no other choice, but to take money from these moneylenders at high interest rates and carry out our business.
Every Onam I buy clothes from wholesale shops and sell it in houses in the city. There are also many like me doing several other businesses. Paying back huge amounts has practically become impossible”, said Thankamani, a resident of a city colony.
“No banks are willing to lend us money. But these moneylenders don’t ask for any promissory bonds for small amounts. Once we fail to pay them, they regularly visit our houses and ask us to sign on the papers they give us. As I have two teenage daughters, I felt it better to sign on the papers, rather than allowing them to visit our house,” said Bhuvanachandran, who has taken money from a Nagercoil-based lender.
“Now, as I fear them, I have sent my two daughters and wife to a relative’s house far away. As a result, my daughters missed their classes all these days. I am planning to borrow money from some other agency and pay them as early as possible,” he said.
Meanwhile, police said that they had not taken any action as no complaints were received. People are reluctant to approach the police as they fear that these moneylenders would start disturbing them and might even attack them and their families. In fact, the police officials too admit to the existence of the moneylending gangs in these areas.
In most of the cases, the loan sharks make their customers sign on blank papers. They earned the name ‘blade’ from the cut-throat interests they charge and the violent recovery methods resorted to.
“We get several unofficial calls every day from people who have borrowed money and given documents. We ask people not to give any signed papers or cheques. We also ask them to bring these sharks to our notice so that action could be taken against them,” said a police official who didn’t want to be named.
“People should consider their ability to repay before taking a loan, and must realise the danger of taking it from illegal lenders,” said the officer.