Police helpline works against Shylocks

The city police had, on July 2, started a helpline to attend to complaints of harassment by moneylenders after a spate of suicides due to that. The service is available on call at the Police Control Room and the Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) control room. Nevertheless, till date, the service has been availed of only twice by the residents, say the law enforcers themselves.

As per instructions of the Ahmedabad Commissioner of Police, S K Saikia, the 100 service (police control room) was directed to attend calls about harassment by moneylenders. The people had been intimated about the service through newspaper reports.

The city police had, on July 2, started a helpline to attend to complaints of harassment by moneylenders after a spate of suicides due to that. The service is available on call at the Police Control Room and the Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) control room. Nevertheless, till date, the service has been availed of only twice by the residents, say the law enforcers themselves.

As per instructions of the Ahmedabad Commissioner of Police, S K Saikia, the 100 service (police control room) was directed to attend calls about harassment by moneylenders. The people had been intimated about the service through newspaper reports.

D H Parmar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Control), said: “We received two calls, and both cases were handed over

to the Naranpura police for investigation. As per procedure, we were asked to take the complaints and hand them over to the concerned police stations. People with more serious problems would have perhaps contacted the DCB for help.”

After the city witnessed three suicides last month, the Ellisbridge police had received a flood of calls seeking help from moneylenders. “The suicides had created panic in the city. People had called to seek protection, which is why the helpline was started,” said the Ellisbridge police.

Meanwhile, the DCB, which was handling the suicide cases of Pritamnagar and Paldi, claimed that they received no calls at all. Inspector M D Chaudhary, who has been investigating the cases, said, “We have only two cases of harassment by moneylenders. We have no idea about other complaints.”

Incidentally, the DCB control room claimed that they do not recall any such circular of the Ahmedabad police commissioner.

The two suicide cases with the DCB are unsolved, as the sudden occurrence of the Odhav hooch tragedy had postponed the investigation, claimed the DCB.

While replying to a question by MLA Amarsinh Vasava in the recent Budget Session in the state Assembly, the Home Department candidly admitted that 17 people had committed

suicide to escape harassment by moneylenders in the last two years till March 31, 2009. The government had also said that maximum suicides had been reported from Rajkot, followed by Ahmedabad.