The city and the Ernakulam rural police continued raids at moneylending establishments in the district on Tuesday.
Ernakulam rural police registered four cases and arrested two illegal moneylenders on the day. The Aluva police seized about Rs.6.41 lakh during the raids on Tuesday and seized several blank cheques and other documents.
The rural police registered a total of 21 cases during the three-day drive while the city police registered over 28 cases during the same period.
Police officers said that in many cases illegal moneylenders forced people to hand over blank cheques or signed stamp papers. They later filled these in with higher figures than was loaned to them. “In their desperation for money, people hand over signed blank stamp papers to the lenders and end up being harshly exploited by them. There have been a few cases where people were forced to hand over their land to the lenders,” said a police officer.
The police have been instructed to examine the land transactions of known goondas and illegal moneylenders to find out whether they were taken over by force. “We will examine the land registers and maybe we could help those whose lands were acquired illegally by lenders,” said the officer. Police also hope that the public will come forward to register complaints against loan sharks.
Ernakulam Range Inspector General of Police M.R. Ajith Kumar said the drive against the blade mafia would continue in the coming days. “We have registered suo motu cases against illegal moneylenders in the drive. Cash, stamp papers and other documents have also been seized. We will investigate the operations of the lenders seriously in the coming days. If we receive complaints from people that the lenders have forced them to give up land or money, we will also probe those angles,” Mr. Ajith Kumar said.
Police also suspect that the blade mafia may have connections with goonda gangs in the city. The Ernakulam North police had arrested two persons for offences under the Kerala Moneylenders Act last week. “The accused employed the assistance of goonda gangs in the city to threaten borrowers and extract money out of them,” police said.
