On Monday, the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission of Delhi slapped a fine of Rs 55 lakh on the ICICI Bank for taking service of ‘goons’ to recover loan from a customer. Within two days of strict warning sent by the Reserve Bank to banks for not using the services of recovery agents to recover loans, the consumer court fined ICICI bank for employing goons for recovering loans.

According to the report, the court held the bank guilty for harassing the consumer for not paying the installments for the loan the consumer received from the bank. The recovery agents mercilessly beat Vinod, ICICI Bank’s customer, and he was sent to hospital for treatment. The ‘goons’ had also snatched the loaned car from him in January this year. The recovery agents beat Vinod when he was driving his friend’s car that was also bought on loan from the ICICI Bank.

The consumer court also passed the warning to all the banks to stop taking services of strong-armed recovery agents for loan recovery. The court also asked the Delhi police commissioner to send instructions to all SHOs in Delhi to register FIRs in such complaints.

Commission’s President Justice JD Kapoor slammed the ‘audacity and impunity’ with which the banks have been forcefully taking possession of vehicles from bank’s customers. He said that no civilised society governed by rule of law could brook such kind of conduct. The methods adopted by the recovery agents are serious violation of ‘human rights’.

The court also vented its anger on the ICICI bank for ignoring the Supreme Court’s direction that already passed the judgment for all the financial institutions not to employ musclemen to recover a loan amount or possession of a vehicle. The court also issued notices to the Collection Manager of ICICI and the CEO of the recovery agency and asked them to submit their explanations why they blatantly ignored the apex court’s direction.

However, a recent report exposed that four men, said to be loan recovery agents of a finance company, allegedly pulled off a 27-year-old tourist from a crowded bus and gang-raped her in Orissa. The incident happened on Sunday near the Sun Temple in Konark. The accused followed the tourist dragged her out of the bus, gang-raped her on the Puri-Konark road stretch.

Later, Police arrested all the accused who were identified as Santosh Sahu, Prakash Pradhan, Gourang Pradhan and R Das. After the medical examination of the victim, the report of rape was confirmed but the accused claim that it was not rape because the victim had consented to the act.

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