Mumbai: The Powai police have booked two women employed with a bank’s recovery agency for making over 375 abusive and threatening phone calls to an 81-year-old woman. TOI had reported about the matter on November 26, following which the harassment stopped.
The calls were regarding credit card dues of Rs 96,000. Rupa, (Name Changed) a retired schoolteacher who lives in Mumbai, and her son Vishesh (Name Changed) said the amount was deducted in a fraudulent transaction, against which Vishesh had submitted a dispute letter to the bank.
“Initially, the accused denied making the calls. But they had nothing to say when confronted with records of the calls, which they made in two months,” said a police officer. “Our FIR against them is under the IPC’s sections 34 (common intention) and 385 (putting in a person the fear of injury to commit extortion).”
Agents threatened to kidnap old woman
Mumbai: A police officer said the two accused bank recovery agents also made abusive calls to Rupa’s son Vishesh and his colleagues. “Also, a customer care executive of the recovery agency abused an officer of the Powai police station when he called to verify Rupa’s complaint.”
Vishes, who works as the chief financial officer of a company, told TOI he has been in Britain since 2008. “When I learnt about the fraudulent transaction, which took place in India the year I left for the UK, I informed the bank and submitted a dispute letter to close the transaction. Instead of closing the matter, the bank assigned the job to its recovery agency, which repeatedly harassed and threatened my mother for no fault of hers,” he said.
In the FIR, Rupa says, “I was forced to get a new phone connection after the women threatened me in a filthy and abusive way. When I would tell them to call later as I was busy cooking or eating, they would threaten to kidnap me. My son never took any loan from any bank… he is well-off and there is no need for him to keep any dues pending.”
Vishesh said, “The amount is not much and I can pay it easily, but I won’t because it is the bank’s fault.”
THE LAW AGAINST RECOVERY AGENTS
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The calls were regarding credit card dues of Rs 96,000. Rupa, (Name Changed) a retired schoolteacher who lives in Mumbai, and her son Vishesh (Name Changed) said the amount was deducted in a fraudulent transaction, against which Vishesh had submitted a dispute letter to the bank.
“Initially, the accused denied making the calls. But they had nothing to say when confronted with records of the calls, which they made in two months,” said a police officer. “Our FIR against them is under the IPC’s sections 34 (common intention) and 385 (putting in a person the fear of injury to commit extortion).”
Agents threatened to kidnap old woman
Mumbai: A police officer said the two accused bank recovery agents also made abusive calls to Rupa’s son Vishesh and his colleagues. “Also, a customer care executive of the recovery agency abused an officer of the Powai police station when he called to verify Rupa’s complaint.”
Vishes, who works as the chief financial officer of a company, told TOI he has been in Britain since 2008. “When I learnt about the fraudulent transaction, which took place in India the year I left for the UK, I informed the bank and submitted a dispute letter to close the transaction. Instead of closing the matter, the bank assigned the job to its recovery agency, which repeatedly harassed and threatened my mother for no fault of hers,” he said.
In the FIR, Rupa says, “I was forced to get a new phone connection after the women threatened me in a filthy and abusive way. When I would tell them to call later as I was busy cooking or eating, they would threaten to kidnap me. My son never took any loan from any bank… he is well-off and there is no need for him to keep any dues pending.”
Vishesh said, “The amount is not much and I can pay it easily, but I won’t because it is the bank’s fault.”
THE LAW AGAINST RECOVERY AGENTS
- Use of any force needs the sanction of law
- To pester a person or to keep contacting him or her is tantamount to using force
- Use of force—direct or indirect—without a court order to get any money amounts to extortion
- If someone or an agency charges an interest rate higher than 15%, a case can be registered under the Bombay Money Lenders Act, 1948
- Senior officers of a bank that authorises recovery agents to act can face criminal charges and arrest. The bank can be sued for compensation, for which, the ombudsman of the Reserve Bank of India or the Human Rights Commission can be approached
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