Raid on moneylender’s flat spills out 150 property documents

Little did even the next-door neighbour realise that the Erandols had gathered assets of more than 150 immovable properties in their name and lent more than Rs 20 crore in cash to hundreds of people, till a raid was carried out by the state cooperative department on the evening of April 7 at flat 501, D-3 wing of upscale Lake Town Housing Society in Katraj.
The flat was taken on rent by the father- son duo of 72-year-old Vijay Shivpad Erandol and Narendra (33) for accommodation, and they used to carry out the illegal moneylending business from elsewhere. Incidentally, this was the first such raid by Pune district deputy registrar (DDR) against illegal moneylending activity after the Maharashtra Money Lending (Regulation) Act, 2014, was passed. A case was registered against them with Bharati Vidyapeeth police station on Wednesday.
But, no sooner had the raid ended than the duo locked the flat and disappeared to evade the arrest. The DDR has been equipped with the rights of the civil court to conduct the raid. As per Section 18 of the Act, the DDR has been empowered with the rights to return the assets to original owners and reinstate the ownership rights of land or flats. The raid was conducted as per the complaint of a person whose flat was mortgaged with the accused and despite paying more than five per cent interest, they had acquired the flat.
Talking to Pune Mirror, B T Lawand, deputy registrar of co-operative societies in Pune, said, “We conducted the raid along with revenue and police officers. We found details of more than 71 properties on blank revenue stamps with signature, 13 blank bond papers with signatures, 97 blank cheques, 29 cheques with amount mentioned, 43 various agreements among others. We also found that the accused did not have a valid licence of moneylenders and they had engaged in the activities for more than 17 years in the city. They kept changing their addresses to avoid any action,” said Lawand. “We have sealed their lockers and four bank accounts and are trying to locate more deals,” he said.
Deputy registrar Pratik Pokharkar, who also took an active part in the action, said, “The accused used to harass and threaten borrowers by using several pressure tactics. They used to take interest from 5 to 12 per cent per month and if he failed to pay the sum, the property was acquired without delay by using goons and other legal tactics,” said Pokharkar. “The Erandol family belongs to Sangli district. In some documents, they have shown their profession as doctor, while in others they have written they are self-employed, which need to be probed."
Talking to Mirror, assistant police inspector Vishwajeet Jagtap of Bharati Vidyepeeth police station said, “They will be arrested soon.”
When contacted, Hema, wife of Narendra, told Mirror over the phone that they are not absconding, but busy with some wok in Mumbai. “They will return in the next two days and clarify their stand on the action. The raid was illegal and they will fight the legal battle. The action is nothing but the personal grudges of some people,” she said.
MODUS OPERANDI
As per officials of the co-operative department, the accused have spread their net in the city through agents. However, to hide their identity, they avoid any activity near their residence. Those who are unable to afford a bank loan or are not liable for a loan were their target customers. First, they used to offer the loan amount by offering an attractive rate of interest. Properties like land, flat, houses were mandatory to mortgage with them. Blank cheques were another method to ensure security of lenders’ money. Many hired goons were working with them to recover the money, the DDR officials feel.