Hyderabad: Moneylenders are now roping in women ‘benamis’ to illegally conduct business in the city. Their act came to fore when the police started probing the practice in Old City, following complains of harassment by women money lenders.
“To our surprise, we found that the men involved in the business are now roping in women to do the dirty work for a commission. Cases have been registered against four such women who were carrying out an illegal money lending business. Three cases were registered in Kanchanbagh, while another case was registered in Kalapatther police station limits,” said DCP (South) V. Satyanarayana.
The police seized documents including nonjudicial stamp papers used for preparing mortgage and loan agreements, registers and chit books. “Also, a few women carry out the money lending business under the garb of chit funds. All members get the fund amount in the first month after deduction of the commission component. If the chit amount is Rs 1 lakh, all the 20 members get about Rs 70,000 each in the first month itself and are asked to repay the amount every month. Penalties are imposed in the form of interest," said the official.
After getting the information, police questioned the men who were using the women as benamis to carry out the business. “As we could not gather clinching evidence against them, we have not arrested them for the time being. We are trying to gather evidence against the men and get their mobile call data records to establish their link,” said a police official.
The police suspect that about 50 women are now in the illegal money lending business in the Old City. “A few more houses of women financers were checked, but we could not get any incriminating evidence against them,” he said.
The south zone police recently arrested 14 moneylenders in a cordon and search operation held in Old City. The police rounded about 31 listed moneylenders but 17 were let off with a warning as the police found they were not into the illegal activity anymore.
