Syndicate Bank Education Loan puts Mother and Daughter in Trouble

Syndicate Bank Education Loan puts Mother and Daughter in Trouble

Udupi: In an incident, a helpless student and her mother being harassed in the pretext of deducting the premium amount from a loan account of the Syndicate Vidya education loan has come to light. The mother has also been receiving threat calls and the bank staff demanding her to repay the loan amount.

Speaking at a press meet on December 26, President of the Human Rights Protection Foundation Dr Ravindranath Shanbhag said that, the incident dates back to 2009. Dr Aravind Joshi, the previous principal of Vijaya College, Mulki had taken the educational loan from the Syndicate Bank, Mulki Branch, for higher education of his daughter Maitreyi. He had managed all the transactions without his daughter Maitreyi’s knowledge so that she could study MBA.

During the end of her course, tragedy stuck Maitreyi’s family, Maitreyi lost her father in an unfortunate accident. She had barely begun to contemplate over the repayment of her education loan when she came to know that the loan had been insured by United India Insurance Company. However, since she was unable to recover the insurance policy papers, she approached the Bank. “What was the loan amount granted to me? What was the amount disbursed? What are the details of the insurance policy taken on the loan? How can I get these?” were her questions seeking guidance from the Bank. In spite of visiting the branch office at Mulki and the regional office at Mangaluru, Maitreyi and her mother received no information.

On September 20, 2012, Maitreyi received a notice from the bank to repay her loan amount of Rs 6,05,676/- which she owed to the bank. She responded to the same letter and requested the information which she had already asked. In spite of receiving 13 notices over the period of five years she did not get the response to her queries but was asked to attend the Lok Adalat for settlement of the matter. She had now owed Rs 12,37,338/- to the bank. Another intriguing matter was that the notices from the bank never contained any stamp or signature of the concerned authorities.

When Maitreyi did not get justice, in 2014, she approached the Human Rights Protection Foundation, Udupi seeking guidance. Several letters were sent from the Foundation to the Bank including the Branch Manager and General Manager. The only response was that the higher officer would get in touch soon.

On perusing the bank statement of the loan account it was observed that the loan amount was sanctioned in June 2009 and in July an amount of Rs 4350 was debited towards insurance premium. But on inquiring with the insurance company, it came to light that no policy was ever taken in either the name of Maitreyi or her father! So where did the debited amount go? Did someone misappropriate it? Has this come to the notice of the bank during the annual audits? Did they take any action? These questions still remain a mystery!

When the Bank could not get the loan amount, the matter was brought to the notice of the Legal Service Authorities, Dakshina Kannada District. A Lok Adalat was formed to decide the matter and another notice was sent to Maitreyi. She again wrote to them explaining the entire situation regarding the non-cooperation from the bank.

On failing to recover the loan, now the bank has resorted to getting the loan amount by sending people to Maitreyi’s mother who lives alone. Therefore the Foundation had no way but to expose the matter to the general public. HRPF has already received several cases of the same nature and is ready to stand by the aggrieved persons with its complete support.

Case Victim Maitreyi was also present in the press meet.