Money 'looted' by wilful defaulters enough to give lakhs of rupees to migrants: TMC MP Derek O'Brien

TMC MP Derek O'Brien on Saturday shared a list of wilful bank loan defaulters on Twitter and said the money "looted" by them would have been enough to transfer lakhs of rupees into the accounts of jobless migrant workers.

He also accused the government of "abetting" crony capitalism.

Besides a list of wilful defaulters in public sector banks, O'Brien shared a list of top 33 defaulters.

"Received a list of 2,426 wilful defaulters from All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) today. Rs 1,47,350 crore looted from the common man. Enough to transfer lakhs of rupees to each jobless migrant worker," the Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader tweeted.

"Sharing the amount of default faced by Indian banks. Government abetting crony capitalism at the cost of our people," he said.

A wilful defaulter is an entity or a person that has not paid the loan back despite the ability to repay it.

Thousands of migrant workers across the country were rendered jobless and forced to head back home to their villages, where there are few employment opportunities after the government imposed a lockdown to stem the spread of Covid-19.