44 victims of loan sharks lodge complaints at lok durbar

Vadodara: The second lok durbar organized by city police against the loan sharks operating in the city, 44 victims from different areas of the city came forward with their written complaints.
The lok durbar held at the community hall in the city police headquarters received enormous response from the victims who had borrowed money from private moneylenders and are now facing the ire of extortion from them. The complaints were heard directly by the police commissioner Anupam Singh Gahlaut, joint police commissioner Kesari Singh Bhati and other top cops.
Police said that they received 44 applications against the moneylenders which were registered at respective police stations. Twelve applications were registered at Makapura police station, 11 at Manjalpur, eight at Panigate police station, seven at Wadi police station, two each at Bapod and Warasia police station and one each at Gotri and City police stations.
Five teams of police stations of Zone 3 area were formed besides the teams of detection and prevention of crime branches and special operations group to investigate the applications.
Cops said that in several cases, the moneylenders had taken four times the money that they had lent, yet they keep extorting the money from the borrowers. In many cases the moneylenders take away jewellery, ATM card, pass books, cheque books, sale deeds of their house and vehicles among other things.
Police are likely to hold more lok durbar in near future. On May 16, during the first lok durbar police had received 33 applications.