Four moneylenders booked for extortion

Rajkot: Four loan sharks were arrested by Rajkot city police on Friday for extortion and charging a very high interest rate on loaned money.

According to police, Hardik Parmar (36), a resident of Moti Tanki chowk in Rajkot, lodged a complaint against Sehnaz Dalvani, Irbaz Khokhar, Afrid Khokhar and Imrani Dalvani, all residents of Rajkot, under various sections of Indian Penal Code including 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt) and also sections of Gujarat Money Lenders Act.

“In May 2016, Parmar borrowed Rs 5 lakh on 20% interest rate from the four persons to purchase a car. Since then Parmar paid back Rs 18 lakh to these money lenders but they were still demanding Rs 3 lakh more from him,” police said.

“Meanwhile, Parmar borrowed Rs 2 lakh more from Irbaz and one lakh from Afrid for which he was paying Rs 3,000 daily as installment. Later, he borrowed Rs 3 lakh from Imran for which he had to pay Rs 3,000 daily installment,” police added.

For the last few days, Parmar was unable to repay the money because of which the accused ‘seized’ his bike. The money lenders also started threatening Parmar, police said.