An advocate and two of his associates, who allegedly used to give loans to individuals through a credit co-operative society and grab loan seekers' properties, were arrested by the Osmania University police on Friday.
Documents of various immovable properties like lands and houses belonging to 195 persons were recovered from the prime accused, Nomula Navodaya, lawyer, and his accomplices, P. Ramesh and Bala Narsimha.
In one case, the accused had extended Rs.3.5 lakh loan to a woman lecturer after keeping the documents of her house worth Rs.1.2 crore, East zone DCP, Y. Gangadhar, said at a press conference.
He sold off that house spread over 1,956 square yards with 1,500 square feet of built-up space for Rs.20 lakh to one of his associates and paid only Rs.12 lakh to the woman, the DCP said.
He allegedly kept the remaining Rs.8 lakh with him claiming that it was the interest for the Rs.3.5 lakh loan he had given.
“Even while giving Rs.3.5 lakh loan, he collected Rs.55,000 as processing fee from the woman,” the DCP said. The advocate had floated an organisation christened Dhanalaxmi Mutually Aided Cooperative Thrift Society in 2004 and got it registered with the Registrar of Societies.
As per the rules, he should enrol members in the society, collect contributions from them, convene general body meetings, elect some members to oversee transactions and disburse loans among the members.
“However, he didn't follow all these procedures. The Registrar of Societies officials told us that they do not monitor transactions of a society once the latter was registered,” the OU Inspector, P. Ashok, said.
He would give loans for amounts below Rs.5 lakh. To be legally safe, Navodaya used to take signatures of loan seekers on blank papers with revenue stamps, promissory notes, stamp duty papers and blank cheques.
“But, he would not give a single receipt to the loan seeker despite taking the latter's signatures on several papers. In the process, he would also collect documents of the loan seeker's property,” the DCP explained.
