Deal cautiously with private financial institutions: Deputy Commissioner

Police directed to register complaints of cheating and not to harass the aggrieved

Deputy Commissioner A.B. Ibrahim and other officials participating in a meeting on public awareness about illegal financial institutions in Mangaluru on Monday. Photo: H. S. Manjunath

The district administration on Monday urged the public to exercise caution while dealing with private financial institutions even as people demanded a thorough investigation by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) into the affairs of various illegal financial institutions that have cheated people.

Presiding a meeting on illegal transactions by unauthorised companies in the district here, Deputy Commissioner A.B. Ibrahim directed the police to register cases and investigate the matter whenever victims approach them. The aggrieved should not be harassed, he said.

Activist Yogish Kumar complained that the police registered only one FIR and treated other complainants as witnesses even though many approached them with multiple complaints. Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime Records Bureau) Subrahmanya said if every complaint had to be registered, there would be hundreds of such complaints, thereby affecting day-to-day working of a police station.

Amaranth Hegde, Chief Manager of lead Syndicate Bank, said people should double-check the veracity of a company if it offers exorbitant rates of interest for deposits as against the maximum cap of 11 per cent fixed by the Reserve Bank of India. They should also cross-check whether the institution was registered either with the RBI or the State Cooperation Department, he said. Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Societies B.K. Saleem said the department could do little on institutions not registered with it.

Mr. Ibrahim directed the Mangalore City Corporation Health Officer Manjappa Shetty to verify the credentials of an entity before issuing trade licence to it.

Retired district judge and law officer at the DC office B.M. Patil asked the complainants to approach courts of the judicial magistrate directly if the police did not register the complaint. The court would act on the complaint filed under Section 200 of Code of Criminal Procedure and direct the police to investigate. Also, if there were any suicides, abatement to suicide case too could be filed against the company to tighten the noose on it, he said.

Mr. Yogish Kumar listed out names of several companies that have cheated people in the guise of offering attractive interest on deposits. They used local people as agents to collect money and disappear from the scene leaving the agents at the mercy of aggrieved customers, he said. B.K. Imtiyaz from Democratic Youth Federation of India too highlighted the plight of ordinary people.