ICICI personal loan costs man his life

Y.Yadaiah, 42, a resident of Hyderabad died in mysterious circumstances in Hyderabad last Friday. His wife has lodged a complaint with the local police that Yadaiah was tortured to death by the recovery agents hired by ICICI bank who were trying to recover the Rs.15,000 personal loan he had been advanced by ICICI.

Y Yadaiah worked as an electrician with the state medical and health department and had taken a personal loan from ICICI bank a few months ago. According to local police inspector G.Narasaiah, one Raju belonging to Elite Financial Services, the local recovery agents of ICICI bank, accompanies by others, picked up Yadaiah from his office on Friday evening. Sunanda, wife of Yadaiah says her husband had called her from their office saying that he had been detained by the recovery agents of ICICI bank. They told him that he would not be allowed to leave their office until he had returned the money he had borrowed from ICICI. The principal amount was Rs.15,000. It is not known how much interest was being recovered. ICICI is known to charge prohibitive rates of interest in the normal course of disbursing personal loans and levy substantial penalties on default.

Mr.Charudatta Deshpande, Head of Corporate Communications, ICICI bank in an email to Parinda.com gave an altogether different version, saying, "Mr. Yaddaiah had taken a personal loan from our Bank. He was unable to pay installments for the last 6 months. We tried to contact him at the given address where he was not available. We are informed that Mr. Yaddaiah had come to the office of our Agency for making payments of the overdue installments. We are informed that during his interaction with the representative of the Agency, he felt unwell & requested to be accompanied to a doctor. We are further informed that the Agency representatives had provided all possible support for his medical treatment. Our condolences are with his family members in their hour of grief. We shall extend all possible support and co-operation to investigating agencies during the course of investigation. "

Elite Financial Services on their part told police that Yadaiah went into convulsions, fell on the floor and injured his forehead.

This is not the first time, ICICI has been charged with the death of a loan customer. About a year ago, in July 2006, a fast food center owner from Delhi, Himanshu Dev Sharma committed suicide after ICICI bank allegedly sent musclemen to recover the bike he had purchased with an ICICI bank loan. The old mother of Himanshu Dev Sharma filed a case with Delhi High Court which still goes.