‘Security deposits’ vanish into thin air

Two women were held recently on charges of cheating people promising them bank loans, jobs

The police have named two women as the masterminds of two major loan and job frauds, the exact impact and extent of which are still under investigation, in the district.

Weaving loan dreams

More than 500 people, mostly poor weavers of Balaramapuram and surrounding areas, believed Mayakumari, a resident of Kalliyoor, when she promised loans up to Rs.2 lakh.

They just had to pay her Rs.35,000 to Rs.50,000 as ‘security deposit’ for the loan. Their trust in her only grew when nearly 240 of them got the promised loans.

It took time for the rest to realise that their ‘security deposits’ had vanished, along with Mayakumari who disappeared. The police believe that employees of two prominent banks were involved in the conspiracy, which revolved around a Central scheme meant for giving loans to the financially weak weaver community.

Mayakumari, who was an accused in four similar cases earlier, had obtained conditional bail from the High Court.

The police are slowly progressing with the mammoth task of taking statements from over 150 complainants to know to what extent they were actually fleeced.

Behind the white coat

For most of the people who approached A.S. Anitha, believing her claims to arrange them jobs in the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Science and Technology and the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, the 42-year-old woman came across as a polite medical assistant.

Several others believed her as she used to visit them in a car with a VSSC board. Hoping to get the clerical and driver jobs she ‘offered’ them at the VSSC and the SCTIMST, they paid the ‘security deposit’ upfront.

By the time the VSSC and the SCTIMST clarified that they had no such person recruiting employees for them, more than Rs.30 lakh had been swindled.

With the Medical College police arresting Anitha, while she was on duty at the super specialty nephrology lab of the Government Medical College Hospital, more complaints are pouring and police suspect the amount she swindled from job aspirants could run into crores.

What puzzles the police is how Anitha, who was dismissed from her contract job in the SAT Hospital not too long back following similar malpractice, managed to get a job again on the same campus, this time in the super specialty lab.

(Reporting by Dennis Marcus Mathew)