Twenty-one complaints of harassment by usurers have been lodged with the city police in the last two days till Friday.
The Commissioner of Police, Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal, conducted special grievance redressal meetings for the victims of usury on Thursday and Friday.
“Most of the complaints were of paying higher rate of interest than prescribed by the State government and still the lenders were asking for more money,” the Commissioner said.
Predominantly, the nature of harassment was frequent visits of the lenders to the residences of the borrowers seeking prompt repayment, he said. The Commissioner promised to take concrete steps on such money-lenders and provide relief to the complainants within 10 days.
Except for a handful number of complainants, none could produce any documentary evidence for their complaints.
The complaints have been forwarded to a senior police officer and some to the respective police stations.
“We have heard one side of the transaction and need to conduct enquiries with the moneylenders too. Based on the enquiry, the jurisdictional officers — Assistant Commissioner of Police or Inspectors of Police — will initiate action,” he said.
However, the Commissioner said that separate files had been made for the complaints under the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Charging of Exorbitant Interest Act, 2003 and his office will be monitoring the follow-up actions on these complaints.
One of the complainants R. Panjavarnam (34) of Karisalkulam near Koodal Nagar said that she had been harassed by four money lenders even after she had paid the principal and exorbitant rate of interest.
“They were not returning the documents, including that of land and vehicles, and cheque leaves, seeking more interest on dues that could not be paid on time. They have taken custody of my vehicles and one of them has been threatening with dire consequences,” the woman, a mother of three girl children, said.
The debit card of her husband, Ravichandran, who is a sanitary worker with the Madurai Corporation, was with one of the moneylenders, she said.
P.M. Iranian, State general secretary of Vana Vengaigal Peravai, said that fruits of all the hard work of the family had been siphoned off by the moneylenders for years.