Theog man held for Rs 3.49-cr loan default

The Solan police have arrested Rajesh Thakur of Theog on Friday from Satog village for failing to appear before the Court of Collector-cum-Assistant Registrar Co-operative Societies after being declared a “loan defaulter”.

An arrest warrant was issued against him on October 25 under Section 75(A) of the Land Revenue Act, 1954. He had stood a guarantor for M/S Solan Highways that defaulted on Rs 3.49 crore loan availed from Baghat Urban Cooperative Bank, Solan.

While hearing the recovery case, the court had declared him a defaulter and despite issuing repeated notices to appear in person, he had failed to do so.

Thakur failed to deposit any amount today but promised to pay a token amount of Rs 10,000 and bring two loan defaulters —Ravinder Sharma and Laxmi Verma — before the court to facilitate repayment of the loan informed a bank officer.

So far, arrest warrants have been issued against 22 people who have been declared defaulters. Eleven of them have either been arrested or they have surrendered before the court while search is on trace the remaining 11 defaulters. Of them, 10 belong to Shimla and Sirmaur districts and one hails from Solan district.

With a majority of the properties being over valued, it remains to be seen how much the Asset Reconstruction Companies (ARCs) could recover even after auctioning the properties.

In the last 35 days, merely Rs 2.5 crore cash recovery could be executed from defaulters. Even during a three-day special court convened to settle 147 cases, only 77 defaulters came forward and a sum of Rs 30 lakh could be recovered, which was a pittance given the liability of Rs 132.50 crore .

The harassed customers were awaiting a crack down on the erring bank management and officials who cleared loans worth crores on properties valued at a few lakhs.

While a managing director has the power to sanction loans up to Rs 10 lakh, borrowings of higher amount need the nod of the board of management comprising nine directors.

With the RBI having put on hold lending facility since April 2021, all non-perfroming assests (NPAs) pertain to the earlier period. The bank’s Gross NPA ratio stood at 47.10, which points towards worsening financial status eroding consumer confidence. Its net NPA was 12.91 per cent.

An ideal NPA ratio is close to zero and a Gross NPA below 2 percent is considered manageable and reflects good credit management.