Woman blames loan sharks for missing brothers and their families

Rajkot: A resident of Ahmedabad, Avni Karia reached the Lok Darbar organized by Rajkot police commissioner on Saturday, seeking cops’ help to trace her two brothers and their families who have gone missing for the past one year. According to Karia, the two families went underground because of the harassment of money lenders. “I got a call from my brother one day who was crying and telling me that he was tensed and cannot tolerate the pressure any more and so they were leaving the city, Thereafter, there had been no contact with them.” She fears her brothers’ properties may have already been grabbed by the money lenders.
The city police received nearly 230 application in the Lok Darbar where senior police officers of the city including police commissioner Manoj Agarwal heard such cases of torture meted out by loan sharks. According to police, 60 per cent were new applications and new names of money lenders have come up. Only 20 per cent cases were old in which action had been taken but the complainant is not happy with it. Such cases have been assigned to senior police officers again.
A dalit youth Kushal Solanki of Thorala came with an application stating that he had borrowed Rs 6 lakh for treatment of his cancer by mortgaging gold worth Rs 38 lakh. He paid back Rs 8.32 lakh together with interest, but when he asked his gold back the lender allegedly threatened him.
Talking to TOI, police commissioner Manoj Agarwal said, “The message should be loud and clear: We will not tolerate this. If we won’t be strict against these activities, the city will be a mafia hub.” He added that the police are investigating all the application and FIRs will be registered in 20 to 25 percent cases within 24 hours.
In Rajkot, may people have committed suicide because of harassment by money lenders. The police started cracking down on money lenders after a person consumed poison and ended his life inside the police commissioner’s office premise in January 2018.