Blunders do come in all sizes. When a loan issued by the Central Bank of India wasn’t repaid, the bank evicted the family of five including three children. In this case however, it was the younger sibling paying price for his brother’s discrepancy.
In Chilavanoor, Kochi on the 1st of February, a family of five was evicted from their home and had to spend three days outside bearing the elements. In this case however, it is Roby and his wife Jincy who find themselves paying for Roby’s brother Roy’s discrepancy. The bank evicted the family from their house wrongly. It was in fact Roy who had taken a loan from the Perumanoor branch, Central Bank of India, pledging both the houses as collateral.
Roy had taken a loan of a few lakhs from the bank and failed to repay. The collated house comes under Maradu village survey number 3, 1082. However the officials sealed the brother’s house at Kadavanthara and rendered them homeless for three days. According to the advocate commissioner on this case, Arun Renjith, “The media has shown only part of the video. It was only when I felt like I was being manhandled, I shouted at them,” he clarifies.
The issue seems to be a result of partial or misconstrued reporting. According to the lawyer, he wasn’t rightly guided by the bank on the right house to be sealed. When he along with the bank officials asked Roy whether this was the house to be acquisitioned, he seemed confused, but eventually confirmed to Roby’s house being the right one.
The next day, Arun was contacted by the bank to inform him that indeed a mistake had been made and it had to be rectified immediately. The bank officials told Arun that the house to be sealed is about 2.5 kilometers away from this one.
Knowing that a local political leader was involved in the matter, Arun hesitated initially, but went over to clarify the issue. “I was accompanied by two of the bank’s senior officials including the branch manager and a carpenter to restore the family into the house. They were co-operative and accepted our apology. But it was the locals who made a scene. I even drew up an inventory list,” he says. According to Arun, not only were they drunk, but also threatened to manhandle him and that is when he scream at them, which is the video that has been doing the rounds since morning.
Bank officials haven’t been available for a comment so far.
Main photograph is a screengrab of a video via Asianet News.
