10 cheating cases registered at different police stations in Kerala based on complaint by Gulf Bank of Kuwait deputy general manager.
Ten cases of cheating have been registered at various police stations in Ernakulam and Kottayam districts after the Gulf Bank of Kuwait filed police complaints in Kerala, alleging that several people from the state, most of them nurses, defaulted on large loans that they had availed from the bank when they were in Kuwait.
The cases were registered last month based on complaints from Mohammed Abdul Vassey Kamran, deputy general manager with Gulf Bank.
Advocate Thomas J Anakkallunkal, who is assisting Gulf Bank in Kerala, said that 1,400 people had defaulted on loans, most of whom were nurses from Kerala. “They had worked with Kuwait government services and availed loans on the back of their salary certificates,” he said.
The advocate said the defaulters were being identified and that more complaints will be registered in the coming days.
Police sources said the bank had filed complaints against the 10 top defaulters from Kerala.
“So far, we have not taken any further action on the complaints. We are doubtful about whether these cheating cases for loan defaulters will stand legal scrutiny. Cheating and criminal conspiracy will only stand legal scrutiny in loan defaults if the loanees had forged documents to avail loans. Without any collateral security, why had the bank given loan to the expats? Why did the bank’s internal mechanism not function?” said a police officer familiar with the case.
Jasmin Shah, the president of United Nurses Association, said most of the nurses had taken loans to pay off their recruitment expenses.
“Only a section of the defaulters are nurses. Most of them had taken loans to meet their huge recruitment expenses and hoped to repay from their salary. But they lost jobs during the Covid pandemic days, leading to default of bank loans. Many of those who came back to Kerala could not rejoin their work due to travel restrictions during the pandemic days. Some of them are still struggling to find suitable jobs.”
Shah also pointed out that a few of these nurses had got jobs in hospitals in Kerala, where a nurse’s salary is less than Rs 25,000 a month, and that “the EMI for the Kuwait loans is around Rs 1 lakh”.
“At the same time, a few of the loanees had willfully defaulted repayment and moved to other countries,” he said.
