Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Apr 7: There was one man foreigners visiting and living in the city could fall back on in times of financial crunch. Because he was more than eager to lend to them liberally against the pledge of their passports, visas, residential permits etc. This has suddenly become a thing of the past because the city crime branch police have arrested the man for this illegal activity.

The arrested accused happens to be B Muniraju (45), who runs 'Mercury Electronics' shop at C M R Road on Kalyan Nagar second block. He is a resident of Kacharakanahalli here. The police personnel who had a hint that he was into financing activity were taken aback by the magnitude of his lending business involving foreigners.

During a raid on his shop, they found 342 passports issued by countries in African continent, 83 residential permits, 153 visas, 93 laptops, 155 cellphones, seven cars and four two-wheelers, all of which have been seized. The police have calculated the value of the seized items at Rs 34 lac.

Muniraju informed the police that initially he used to lend even to Nigerian nationals. However, he stopped this practice after finding that many of them provided fake documents, some never repaid the loans, while some others posed threats. The police also found that he used to lend also against pledge of things like T-shirts, trousers, shoes, spectacles and other things offered as security by the foreign nationals depending on the size of their loans.

The police have found that Muniraju has been running electronic shop as a camouflage for his financing activity. For him, financing people at high rates of interest was more profitable. He used to lend between Rs 500 and 20,000 by charging interest of five percent per month. Most of his clients belong to Uganda, Namibia, Ghana, Sudan, Guyana, Congo and other countries. The police believe that during the last one year, he has lent about ten lac rupees to such people.

Most of Muniraju's customers are students, who face shortage of funds during the month end. After starting to lend on a modest scale initially, Muniraju had started to lend to hundreds of people.

The police found that the validity of several of the passports and visas in Muniraju's possession have expired. Therefore, they contemplate action against such foreigners who continue to live here illegally beyond permitted period. They plan to hand over other documents to their original owners. The department also wants to find out the ownership of laptops, iPads, and cellphones recovered from him as they suspect at least some of them to be stolen or involved with other criminal activities.

The size of Muniraju's activities have come as a surprise for the police as this is the first instance in the history of the city police in which a single person has financed foreigners against deposit of 341 passports. Foreign nationals need to be in possession of their passports always but the fact that they pawned their passports to avail loans is something that is against rules and practices, they say.