Thursday, December 6, 2007

HSBC bank recovery agents bash up 58-year-old professor

Two days back RBI had put on its website guidelines for the bank’s recovery agents and in it has warned the banks about strict actions would be taken against them and even penalize the license of the bank but it seems still the warning is falling on deaf ears.
Again an incident of unruliness by recovery agent of the bank has come into limelight. It is HSBC bank in news. This time the victim is a professor of a reputed engineering college, Prof J.S. Kalra. He has charged a multinational bank which allegedly sent a pack of intimidating loan recovery agents to hound him.

Kalra had taken a loan of Rs 4.5 lakh to buy a Santro from the Noida branch of HSBC last year.

The incident took place in September but the 58-year-old professor. He is hopeful of justice, encouraged by the recent strict guidelines issued by the RBI against banks intimidating customers to recover loan. Even the Finance Minister P. Chidambaram too has iterated that “strictest action” will be taken against banks stooping to strong-arm methods.

Prof J.S. Kalra of the Delhi College of Engineering has filed his complaint against the bank. In his complaint he told the police that the agents abused and beat him up outside the Indraprashta University campus in north Delhi for delaying monthly installments of a loan. They did not care to stop even after he told them that he was a heart patient and that he had developed chest pain. “They even threatened to kill me,” Kalra said in his complaint.

The police said they have registered a case of criminal intimidation against the loan recovery agents, allegedly hired by HSBC bank. Devesh Chandra Srivasatava, deputy commissioner of police (north) told the press “They got into Kalra’s car and refused to leave till he paid the loan installments immediately. They hurled abuses, and beat him up. When they saw Kalra developing heart problem, they left him.”

A senior police offer said, “We have registered a case but further investigations are on. When we approached the bank they told us that they had not hired any agent to recover the loans from the complainant. Yet no arrests have been made into the case and we are verifying the details.”

A HSBC spokesperson, Malini Thadani, when contacted by HT, said she was not aware about the incident and would comment on it after getting details of the case.

2 comments:

Office of Managing Director said...

Blatant lie of a man, who does not want to return money, which he borrowed.

Fundscare said...

Have them send you the settlement offer IN WRITING. Open a new checking account at your bank. Put only the amount of money in the account that you need to make the payment each month and pay out of that account
Recovery Agencies