The Dakshina Kannada Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has sentenced the managing director of an amusement park on the outskirts of the city to six months imprisonment for his failure to obey its previous orders or the appellate judicial body, the Karnataka State Consumer Disputes Commission.
In four orders, nearly identical, passed on August 4, the forum maintained the quantum of imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs. 10,000 in three cases and Rs. 8,000 in one.
It ruled that the fine amount on recovery shall be paid as compensation to complainants. The failure of the accused, G.M. Amusement and Leisure Park represented by its Chairman and Managing Director Thomas Oswald Pinto, to pay fine would attract additional simple imprisonment for a month, the forum said and added that both sentences will run concurrently.
The complainants said they had not received the maturity value of their fixed deposits with the company. The forum had, in 2008 and 2009, ordered payment of maturity value and compensatory interest till the date of payment in respect of the four depositors within a month.
With regard to two deposits amounting to Rs. 9 lakh from Hector A. Correa of Sturrock Road, the company had obtained additional time of three months through an appeal to the State commission. But, the company paid him only Rs. 50,000 at the end of extended period. The other complainants, Patrick Pinto of Belman and Walter Lobo of Kembar, had deposited, Rs. 3.25 lakh and Rs. 1 lakh respectively.
The accused stated that he was bound by a Debts Recovery Tribunal (DRT) stay order against selling movable and immovable property. The forum held that the four depositors were not a party to the petition.
‘Exorbitant interest'
In another order passed on August 16, the forum has asked Muthoot Finance Ltd., to release the gold pledged for a personal loan by U.B. Rehmath of Ullal after collecting interest at 17 per cent a year. It awarded a compensation of Rs. 15,000 and litigation cost of Rs. 1,000 to complainant.
Mr. Rehmath had alleged that the charges and interest levied worked out to 34 per cent. “The complainant has exposed the fact that non-baking financial institutions charge exorbitant interest and indulge in unfair trade practices. Customers, because of their need for finance are forced to pay ‘coercive' rates of interest,” the forum said.
