The wife of a man who died on Friday has filed a complaint with the police alleging he was tortured to death by agents of a debt-recovery firm having a tie-up with ICICI Bank. Both the bank and the loan-recovery agency have denied the charges.
Y Yadaiah, 42, an electrician in the state medical and health department, had defaulted on a Rs 15,000 personal loan he had taken from ICICI Bank a few months ago.
Police inspector G Narasaiah said one Raju from Elite Financial Services — the loan-recovery agency which has a contract with ICICI Bank — along with some others, picked up Yadaiah from his office on Friday. Sunanda, the wife, said
Yadaiah had called her up sometime later, saying the recovery agents had detained him at their office. "He was told he would not be allowed to leave until he returned the money," she said. Around 2 pm, Sunanda received a message from a hospital saying her husband had died.
On Saturday, the police registered a case under sections 342 (wrongful confinement) and 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC against Raju.
In a statement, Rahul Virkar of ICICI Bank, said, "We are informed that Yadaiah had come to the office of our agency for making payments for the overdue instalments. We are informed that during the interaction with the representatives of the agency he felt unwell and requested to be accompanied to a doctor. We are further informed that the agency representatives had provided all possible support for his medical treatment."
Elite Financial Services told the police that Yadaiah went into convulsions, fell on the floor and injured his forehead. It said Yadaiah was taken to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared him dead.
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