DNA

Mumbai, Sep 20: Alleged harassment by recovery agents of the ICICI Bank is believed to have driven a 38-year-old to commit suicide in Malpa Dongri area of the MIDC on Monday September 17.

Police have arrested Nishant Uttamrao Nagrale, 29, Hiren Vaidya, 25, and Kailash Jogendar Chowdhary, 27, and Tushar Pargaonkar, 25, who “hounded Prakash Sarvankar to recover loan dues”.

ICICI’s head of corporate communications, Charudatta Deshpande, said the four were recovery agents. “We are conducting an inquiry into the incident.

Sarvankar had not paid five consecutive installments, but the bank does not approve or tolerate cases where agents use coercion for recovery of dues,” he said. MIDC police said Prakash had repaid part of the Rs50,000 loan he took in January 2007.

The recovery agents arrived on the scene after he was unable to repay the remaining amount.

“On September 13, the agents landed up at Sarvankar’s place again and threatened him with dire consequences. This was the last straw for Sarvankar, who chose to commit suicide by hanging,” said a police source.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (ZoneX) KM Prasanna said, “We have recovered a  suicide note which stated that Sarvankar was ending life following repeated harassment by recovery agents of ICICI bank.

“The investigations led to the arrest of four recovery agents of the bank on Tuesday September 18.”