Jalaun: A daily wage earner committed suicide when he was issued a loan recovery notice of Rs. 1.8 lakhs by officials of Allahabad Bank. Ironically Jamuna Das (45), who has left a large family of ten and was barely able to make the ends meet, never ever took a loan from the bank.

Extremely stressed and finding no one to help his cause, he committed suicide on the night of December 29 by hanging himself to a tree in front of his house in Bhadrekhi village in Jalaun district of Bundelkhand. He is survived by his wife, three sons and six daughters. He got a recovery notice from Allahabad Bank in the last week of July.

Rajulika, his wife alleged that there was a nexus between brokers and corrupt bank officials, who blatantly issued illegal loans based on fake documents. "Jamuna, contacted the bank authorities, wrote to the chief minister, the district magistrate and the police of the area but he couldn't get any help. The bank officials even put pressure on him to repay the dues," she added.

Sensing a big racket the district magistrate has taken a serious note of the incident and issued a stern warning that anyone found involved in unauthorized recovery of loans won't be spared. “I have written to Chief Minister Mayawati and senior police officers in this regard,” he added.

Forging documents and obtaining fake loans is a big issue that banks have to deal with. Often the bank officials are hand in glove with errant brokers, who for a paltry commission create fake identities and obtain the loans easily. The problem is compounded with a vast majority of Indian population being poorly educated and unwary of banking practices. 

A lack of proper identification of borrower and scrutiny of loan documents is a big cause of the growing number of 'bad loans'. Perhaps, the banks have to bring in more transparency and induce strict checks with severe penalties for the errant officials so that such incidents do not occur in future.