60-year-old arrested despite repaying loan as Kerala Bank bungles

Adoor: A lapse on the part of the bank reportedly led to the arrest of a 60-year-old man two years after he repaid the entire loan.

Surendran Pillai, who runs a tea shop-cum-stationary store at Arukalickal near here, said that the money which was handed over to the collection agent was not remitted in the bank, leading to a default initially.

The bank later filed a cheque case in court and he was issued a notice. After that, he mortgaged his daughter's gold jewellery and repaid the dues fully on December 30, 2019.

The loan was taken from the Ezhamkulam branch of the Kerala Bank. Even though the loan dues were fully paid, the bank authorities and the lawyer concerned did not take the requisite steps to withdraw the cheque case. And subsequently, Surendran Pillai was arrested the other day.

(The Kerala State Co-operative Bank Limited is branded as Kerala Bank.)

"On the morning of April 1, cops arrived at the tea shop and said that there was a warrant from the court. When informed that it was a cheque case over loan default, I told the cops that loan dues were paid off. But they replied that as there is a warrant, I had to be produced in the court.

"Even before having my breakfast, I was arrested and taken away even as the neighbours watched. While sitting at the station too, I had to face humiliation in front of my acquaintances who had come to file complaints. I was produced in court after 3.30pm. The court instructed me to submit the bank document of having repaid the loan dues and let me off on bail.

“After coming to know of this, the bank authorities and the lawyer withdrew the cheque case. If they had done this earlier, an innocent person like me would not have had to go to the police station and court,” Surendran Pillai said.

"I first took a loan of Rs 1 lakh for business needs in 2015. After repaying that, I took a Rs 2 lakh loan too. Even that, I had duly repaid," he explained.