CCB cops raid illegal money lenders, arrests nine

The Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths on Wednesday conducted raids on illegal money lenders in the city and arrested at least nine of them, including two women.

The raids, which started at 5.30 am and ended at 10.30 am, were carried out simultaneously at 10 places.

Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister G Parameshwara, during his recent inspection of the city market, was greeted with numerous complaints from vendors stating they were exploited by illegal money lenders, who charged exorbitant interest.

Then Parameshwara had instructed senior police officials to look into the issue.

The police started working on it from Wednesday evening and formed special teams headed by four ACPs and 13 inspectors from the CCB.

The team of police conducted simultaneous raids at Kamakshipalaya, Micolayout, Jayanagar, City Market, Hanumanthanagar, Byatrayanapura, and three places in Chandra Layout.

The sleuths arrested nine money lenders, including two women, identified as Manjunath alias Miracle Manja (30), Bhaskar (60), Velu alias Toilet Velu, MG Subramani, Sathish, Jayamma, Krishnamma, Venkatesh and Lingaraju.

According to the police, Venkatesh, one of the accused, was an administrator at a private educational institution. Another accused, Velu, as his alias states, has taken tender of collecting change from the public toilets (Sulabh’s) across the city, the police said.

The police seized Rs 69.16 lakh in cash, along with incriminating documents from the houses of the accused. As many as 258 cheques, 52 on-demand drafts, five four-wheelers, two motorcycles, 11 land documents, 25 e-stamps, 13 bond papers, 14 loan contract bonds, 10 GPA letters and seven vehicle documents.

“We have registered cases on 10 individuals under sections of Prohibition of Charging Exorbitant Interest Act and other IPC sections. We will collect some more information on the background of the accused and intimate about the seizures to the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax authorities,” said T Suneel Kumar, city police commissioner.

“I have also sought an explanation from all divisions’ DCPs as to why these unethical money lenders were left unchecked. I have also instructed my subordinates to prepare a list of recreational clubs operating in their jurisdictions involving in gambling and other illegal activities,” Kumar added.