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Wife Mortgaged to Loan shark

by Sanjay Jha | June 11, 2008 at 09:07 pm | 249 views | 1 comment

We have heard of excesses of loan recovery agents. But in a shocking incident in India's eastern state of West Bengal a man was forced to keep his newly married wife as mortgage after failing to repay loan.

You could call it Bengal’s heart of darkness. Unable to repay a loan hehad taken for his wedding, a Murshidabad man ‘mortgaged’ his wifeand vanished. For two years, the woman was allegedly raped and kept confined inthe moneylender’s house.

When she went to police, theyallegedly did nothing. Every time she sought help, they ignored her, shesays.

The shocking incidenttook place at Jhikra village in Murshidabad’s Bharatpur area. When thewoman married tailor Toton Sheikh five years ago, he borrowed some money fromRahamani Sheikh, a rich businessman from neighbouring Surpara village. Thecouple was finding it difficult to pay back the Rs 5,000 (at a hefty interest)when they had to borrow money again for their son’s birth.

Toton could pay back only Rs3,000. Rahamani started pressuring him and a desperate Toton decided to quittailoring and go to Delhi with a mason’s job. When Rahamani learnt ofthis, he confronted Toton and demanded that he leave something as mortgage.

“We are very poor and myhusband had nothing to mortgage. So he decided to let Rahamani keep me till hecame back from Delhi. I refused to go but as my husband kept pleading, I gavein. He said he would be back in six months, but two years have passed andI’ve not heard from him,” said Toton’s wife. “Themoneylender forced me to have sex with him. After six months, I tried to returnhome, but he locked meup.”

About a year ago,she managed to sneak out to Bharatpur police station to lodge a complaintagainst the moneylender. But police refused to act, she said. “On June 7,I complained to the police again, but they again refused. Rahamani pays them abribe everymonth.”

Rahamani left fora relative’s home a week back, allegedly threatening to kill her if shetried to flee. Toton’s father Sadu Sheikh pleaded ignorance. “My sonworks in Delhi. I don’t know where my daughter-in-law is as I have brokenall ties with her since Toton left,” he said.

Murshidabad SP Basab Dasguptapromised to take action if police were found guilty. A circle inspector willprobe the matter immediately. var RN = new String (Math.random()); var RNS = RN.substring (2,11); var b2 = ' '; if (doweshowbellyad==1) bellyad.innerHTML = b2;