Ramagundam: In a major crackdown, the Ramagundam police on Monday conducted raids on illegal finance companies and arrested 49 members who were allegedly involved in the operation.
Signed cheques for Rs 65.52 lakh, 1,235 promissory notes, 1,019 signed blank cheques, 347 ATM cards, 175 signed bond papers, 100 loan files, 29 signed empty agreements, 23 land documents, 14 vehicle documents and nine pattadar passbooks were seized from their possession.
Speaking to the media, the Ramagundam police commissioner, V. Sathyanarayana said that keeping in view the financial needs of people, some of the private finance companies, despite having no licence or permission, were running the finance business and were collecting a high rate of interest from them.
For every Rs 100 they provide, the private finance companies were collecting Rs 5 to Rs 10 as interest from the people.
As many as 60 special teams — comprising police personnel of the Task force, special branch, CCS and the local police — were deployed to identify and stop the illegal finance companies whose reach has extended well into Macherial and Peddapalli districts.
Raids were conducted simultaneously at various locations on the offices and the houses of the accused. Mr Sathyanarayana said that more than 160 illegal finance companies have been identified in both districts which were running daily finance, auto finance and chits illegally without any permission.
Investigation is on to know as to how many persons were involved in this illegal businesses, how much money was invested, whether these persons had any connection with influential people and the sources from which the accused were getting money to invest in this illegal finance business, he said.
“As per the rules and regulations by the TS Money Lending Act, anyone can give or take a loan. But running the finance business without permission, violating rules, harassing people, insulting women and encroaching properties is a crime and stringent action will be taken against such persons,” warned the top cop.
