Multi crore money-lending racket busted, kingpin arrested

Varanasi, Aug 26 (UNI) Police today claimed to have busted a multi-crore illegal money-lending racket with the arrest of its kingpin from Sigra area here.

SSP Ashutosh Pandey told newspersons here, taking serious note of complaints by Purnima Srivastava and Maya Giri, cops raided a house in Siddhgiri Bag locality last night and arrested Sanjiv Rai, the kingpin of the illegal racket.

The police seized 160 blank stamp papers bearing signatures of borrowers, post dated cheques, vital documents and two guns from the spot.

Rai had lent a sum of Rs 62 lakh to several borrowers at an annual interest of 120 per cent and was to realise from them, a whopping sum of over Rs four crore.

Before lending money to borrowers, Rai asked them to submit blank stamp papers bearing their signatures, besides pledging post dated cheques, Kisan Vikas Patras and National Saving Certificates as security, Mr Pandey said.

The SSP said the police was investigating the strong possibility of investments in the racket by big names in the scrap trade in Uttar Pradesh, who also used to provide criminals to Rai for terrorising borrowers.

''It has come to light during the course of early investigations that Rai has been rotating the money of scrap mafia and other criminal gangs which were involved in extortion. The big names helping Rai in his illegal business will be declared only after thorough investigations,'' Mr Pandey maintained.

The ongoing investigation would also end up in revealing the names of those who had either left the city or committed suicide after falling prey to the trap of Rai's racket.

Mr Pandey said records about eight buildings owned by Rai had also been seized by the police and efforts were underway to detect any other properties.

Also registered as a lawyer with one of the Bar Associations here, Rai was produced before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) P N Srivastava, who rejected his bail plea and sent him to jail.

The news of his arrest spread like wildfire in the court premises, following which a group of lawyers went berserk and indulged in violence on the collectorate premises. They later burnt an effigy of the SSP.

Meanwhile, both the Central Bar Association and Banaras Bar Association denied of any involvement in the violence on the collectorate premises.

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