MALKANGIRI: Around 40 women of MV-96 met Malkangiri collector Vishal Singh on Saturday and alleged they have been forced to resort to prostitution to repay loans drawn by a lady in their names from various private finance organisations.
The victims said, the woman Nirupama Bepari took their Aadhaar number, voters’ identity card and bank accounts details a few days back on the pretext of sanctioning them loans to start business. After getting the documents, Nirupama allegedly got loans sanctioned from micro-finance agencies. She withdrew the loan amount from the women’s bank accounts, they told the collector.
When the women asked Nirupama to return the amount to their bank accounts, she reprimanded them and allegedly asked them to commit suicide. The victims alleged they are getting notices from the organisations to repay the loans.
The women, whose husbands work outside the village as daily wage workers, alleged they are repaying the loans by whatever they are earning through prostitution. Talking to TNIE, Singh said he has asked the additional district magistrate Maheswar Chandra Nayak to probe into the matter after which action as deemed fit will be taken against the loan provider organisations.
Nayak said an official enquiry into the allegations brought up by the women will be conducted jointly by the tehsildar and sub-collector. Prima facie, it has come to fore that the loan provider organisations were involved in cheating the women with the help of middlemen.