The director, insurance agent and other executives from a bank based in Lalbaug are being investigated for allegedly duping more than 150 people across Mumbai of Rs 5 crore. The bank management had promised 150 people to get loans at low rates.
According to Indian Express, an FIR has been registered against the director, insurance agent and other executives at Kalachowkie police station. The FIR was lodged after the people who were duped approached NCP's general secretary Ashok Panchal and head of the Karzadar Jamindar Hakk Saurakshan Samiti. The case dates back to 2015 when the bank had issued advertisements offering loans to individuals with valid LIC policies. After this, many people from Mumbai and Navi Mumbai approached the bank.
Jayashree Sawant (68) a resident of Goregaon, who also is the complainant in the FIR, told the leading daily that in April 2016 her son Rajesh had applied to the bank for a loan but had been rejected. She alleged that the bank’s insurance agent, Sambhaji Adavkar, took her LIC policy certificate along with identification documents saying that he would try to get to the loan proposal approved with her as a personal surety, but she has said that she never heard back from Adavkar. In September 2018, Sawant was shocked when the bank's recovery agents came to her house asking for her to pay back a loan of Rs. 6.64 lakh that had been taken against her insurance policy a year earlier.
Later, when she inquired in the bank, it was revealed that a loan of Rs 5.75 lakh was drawn using her insurance policy. Sawant alleged that she never received any money from the bank. Another victim to fraud is Nitin Surve (32), a resident from Navi Mumbai. Surve works at a BPO in Thane. Surve told the Indian Express, “For one year, the recovery agents would come home every few days demanding payment. In front of my parents and children they would threaten to make sure I lost my job unless I paid up.” Surve had received only a fraction of a loan of Rs 5 lakh.
Ashok Panchal has a list of 153 people who are being duped by the same bank. Panchal told the Indian Express, “In each case, the pattern is the same. The bank officials and its agent misused life insurance policies, drew loans without the consent of policy-holders and pocketed the money.” Panchal claimed that they cheated 153 victims of close to Rs 5 crore. The accused are alleged to have drawn loans ranging between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 15 lakh from insurance policies.
