Kochi: Representatives from Kuwait Banks who arrived in Kerala are taking strict criminal legal action to recover bad debts from hundreds of Keralites who have disappeared without repaying bank loans worth crores taken from Kuwait Banks. Based on a complaint filed by the Senior officials of Kuwait Banks at the police headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram, the police have registered FIRs across the state and started investigation.
The FIRs were registered in various police stations as per the directions issued by the police headquarters to take effective criminal legal action on evaluation of the complaint which contained information about the Keralites who had 'vanished' after cheating the banks through loan fraud.These FIR proceedings are non-bailable under sections 406 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code of 1860, offences alleging criminal conspiracy, breach of trust by using forged documents, and disappearance by embezzlement.
Keralites were always regarded by Kuwaiti banks as the finest clients. But since so many Keralites left the nation without paying back their debts, their reputation in the area has weakened among the banks. Apart from Kuwait, banks in most Gulf countries including the UAE, Saudi Arabia , Qatar and Oman് have been hit by similar loan fraud in which Keralites are involved on an unprecedented scale in the last five to six years. It is reported that the number of NRI Keralites who have defrauded banks in this way is in the hundreds.
The cases include sections that provide for imprisonment of up to seven years for the accused in addition to confiscating property and recovering the fraudulent amount. In most of the FIRs that have already been registered, the accused were ex-employees of Ministry Of Health. The police, after preliminary investigation, have concluded that only a few of them are currently in Kerala and most of them are in E U or countries like the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand. Banks from the Gulf region have decided to intensify criminal proceedings against them in Kerala itself. Bank representatives are also proposing that the investigation of these cases in Kerala be entrusted to the Crime Branch.
The banks are citing Section 188 of the CrPC, which stipulates that if an Indian citizen commits a crime abroad, he/she should face the same legal action as if he/she were in India. Other banks in the Gulf countries are also preparing to collect dues from Indian citizens in this manner. In addition to a number of ex Ministry of Health employees, action will also be taken against businessmen and other groups who have taken bank loans from Gulf countries and gone vanished. The state crime branch had started an investigation on the complaint filed by the bank against Kannur native Ismail Chakkaram, who had not repaid the loan amount of Rs 61.2 crore he had taken from United Bank Limited in Qatar by deceiving them and bringing it to Kerala. Meanwhile, Ismail, who was arrested by the ED in a money laundering case, has been remanded in judicial custody.
Bank records show that Keralites have been taking out loans from Banks in large numbers since 2015, when nurses were offered MOH jobs in Kuwait by paying around Rs 17 lakh as service charges. The agencies that came to help nurses get jobs also came forward to provide loans. The same agencies collected the loan amount as service charge. Within two years, the nurses repaid this amount from their salaries. With this, they were able to shine before the banks with a good credit score, making it easier to get loans worth up to Rs Three crore.
A good percentage of those who continue to work, whether in MOH or not, repay the amount on time. However, there are many who have not informed the banks and have not made the repayments, and have found jobs in other countries with higher remuneration and have disappeared. There are also those who have brought back illegal 'savings' of 2 to 3 crore rupees and bought big house or used it as capital for their business elsewhere. Banks discovered late that very few of these people take repayment seriously. Since the defaulters have left the country, there have been various obstacles in the subsequent proceedings. The banks are moving to file criminal cases against those who have come from other Indian states and returned after committing such loan frauds, just like in Kerala.