World Consumer Rights Day: Thousands fall victim to fly-by-night firms

Syed Akbar

Hyderabad, March 14: As consumer rights activists the world over focus on "our money our rights" this World Consumer Rights Day on Monday, thousands of gullible people in Andhra Pradesh continue to fall victim to fly-by-night financial firms and chit fund companies.

According to official estimates, consumers have lost as much as Rs 10,000 crore in the last five years. Most of the victims belong to poor and middle class families and they had saved money to meet the marriage or educational expenses of their children.

On an average, two financial firms wind up business in the State. Incidentally, those who top the list of wanted by the CID are involved in financial irregularities including fraud.

With financial crimes going up in many parts of the world, this year's world consumer rights day has been dedicated to safeguarding the hard earned money of people, besides creating an awareness on safe banking and financial transactions.

Consumer bodies will focus on the "banking" rights of people as a large chunk of population in the country do not have access to formal banking. Because of lack of access to formal banking, many gullible consumers fall prey to the lure of high interest rates offered by so-called blade companies.

"In India only 48 per cent of people have access to the formal

banking sector. Despite this rural households had total cash flows

equal to 10 to 30 times their end-of-year asset values," says consumer rights activist M Venkatasubbaiah.

Consumer rights activists are concentrating on rural areas as the formal financial services sector is under-developed in the country.

As many as 18.5 crore potentially bankable villagers do not have bank accounts. Only 20 per cent of people living in villages have access to formal banking.

According to Asian Development Bank studies, about 80 per cent of people in rural areas do not have insurance while 73 per cent of 89 million farmer households do not have access to formal sources of credit.

"Unless we succeed in providing access to all people to formal banking and credit systems, fraudsters will continue to play havoc with the lives of gullible investors. No amount of legislation will help. People should be educated on safe banking," argues consumer advocate S Ramgopal.

Hyderabad police torture Muslim youths after bomb blasts

2007
By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, Oct 22: The city police seems to have meticulously tortured some of the 21 youths they had detained illegally at a farm house in the city outskirts, if the physical examination reports by doctors is any indication.
There are clear marks of injury but they are so small and partially healed that it makes difficult for examining doctors to exactly pinpoint the cause. There are signs of electrocution with very small voltage electricity and not big enough to prove that they are electrical burns or Joule burn in medical parlance. This shows that the police had carried out the "interrogation" in such a way so as not to leave major tell tale marks on the bodies. Soft tissues and tendons were targeted since it becomes difficult for doctors to find out the injuries after a gap of three weeks.
Since the youths were detained for days together, the injuries they bore had either healed or were in stage of partial healing by the time they were produced in court for remand. Though the police started picking up youths soon after the twin bomb blast on August 25, the arrests were shown only a few days later.
The detained youths had access to medical facility for the first time on September 8 at Cherlapally jail dispensary. They were referred to Osmania General Hospital on September 18 for further medical treatment following a directive by AP High Court.
Dr T Mahender Reddy, professor of forensic medicine in Kamineni Medical College, who accompanied the State Minorities Commission's inquiry team, noted that "soft tissue (muscle and tendons) injuries cannot be made out after three weeks. Pain and tenderness are the manifestations of soft tissue injuries which cannot be determined or calibrated on simple external examination".
He pointed out in his report to the commission that in three undertrials partially healing and healed abrasions were present on the forearms, wrists and in front of the legs. In two undertrials small scars of less than one centimetre were seen on external ears. In another three undertrials pin-point partially healing abrasions ranging from one millimetre to two millimetre in diameter were noted around nipples.
In one undertrial prisoner multiple circular discoloration was noted on the inner aspect of right thigh each measuring approximately one cm in diameter.
"From the above noted injuries inference is drawn that partially healing and healed injuries are of age group ranging from one to three weeks old," he said.
The youths were remanded to judicial custody and sent to Cherlapally jail after the police officially showed the arrests on September 8. Before being produced in court, the youths were lodged at a farm house where they were subjected to "interrogation" for days together. The police booked cases relating to waging war against the State or obtaining passports by producing fake documents. Interestingly, though all the youths were arrested in connection with the bomb blasts, none of them was shown arrested on this charge.
The medical report further pointed out that small pin-point abrasions noted around nipples were possible by electrocution with very small voltage electricity. Other possibility of pin-point abrasions can be due to pricking by sharp needle like objects.
"Classical electrical burns (Joule burn) were not made out on any person. None of them had an injury anywhere on the private parts at the time of examination," Dr Mahender Reddy said.
The medical records maintained at Cherlapalli central prison dispensary point out that one of the youths Muhammad Abdul Karim Anwar, 24, had two abrasions on right hand, two abrasions on front of right forearm, abrasions on left knee and painful movements of left shoulder.
He was taken to the dispensary for the second time on September 12 and later on September 18 he was referred to Osmania General Hospital for further treatment and management.
Another youth, Ibrahim Ali Junaid, 25, had abrasions on front of lower leg, swelling of left foot and punctate marks on lower right arm and lower left back.
Abdul Wasim, 25, reported abrasion of left forearm, abrasion of right forearm and swelling of left forearm.

Community Participation Law proposed in Andhra Pradesh to solve civic problems

2006
Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, Oct 5: Garbage not cleared in your area? Are the roads bad? Is the municipal water contaminated? Are the streetlights out of order? You need not run from pillar to post to get these basic civic amenities done. Very soon, you can get these things done effectively thanks to the proposed "community participation law".
All State governments in the country are duty bound to implement reforms in their municipalities and municipal corporations providing for effective participation of the local people in the functioning of urban local bodies.
People can also seek information from their municipalities or corporation on issues like audit of funds. The States should also come out with legislation to provide for "area sabhas" on the lines of "grama sabhas".
There will also be ward committees each with 10 local citizens as their members. The urban bodies cannot take works without consulting the area sabha and the ward committees. At present in a large city like Hyderabad, a corporator has to look after the civic needs of about 50,000 people. If the ward committees and area sabha are formed, there will be a public representative for say 2000 to 3000 people.
The Central government has made it mandatory on the part of the State governments to implement reforms in towns and cities if they want to seek Central assistance for urban infrastructure. At stake is about Rs 50,000 crore and the State that takes up the reforms first will get the lion's share of this Central assistance. Besides the community participation law, the governments should enact municipality disclosure law which authorises people to virtually peep into the accounts of their civic body.
"The model community participation law aims at institutionalising citizen participation. Every polling station or two at the most will have an area sabha with an area sabha representative, who will be elected through ballot by local voters. The objective is to establish three tiered structure - council, ward committee and area sabha in all urban local bodies. Devolution of funds, functions and powers will be carried forward to these levels," municipal administration and urban development principal secretary SP Singh said.
To claim Central funds every State should take up "mandatory reforms" like implementation of decentralisation measures as envisaged in Constitution 74th amendment Act, 1992 and enactment of municipality disclosure law and community participation law.
If the Centre has its say, municipal corporations will get the power to control fire services.
A ward committee will be constituted for each ward in a municipality. The committee will have the local councillor as its ex-officio chairperson. Nor more than 10 persons representing local citizens will be nominated by the municipality. The committee has the power to produce ward plans, prepare ward budget and ensure optimal collection of revenue sources.
There will also be ward finance committees with financial powers. This simply means local residents will have more powers and role to play in the functioning of their civic bodies.

Blind manhunt by CID

2005
By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, July 3: The Crime Investigation Department is on a virtually blind manhunt after four top most wanted economic offenders in the State as it does not know how they look alike.
The CID does not have the photographs of the top most four of the 12 economic offenders on the run. It is no wonder then that the department has made no appreciable progress in the past nine years in the investigation. The economic offenders, who had cheated gullible people through finance companies, continue to escape the police dragnet.
The CID has announced on its official website that it will pay a "handsome reward" to those who give information on these offenders. It is not clear how the common man will pass on the information to the CID when the investigating agency does not know how the offenders look alike.
Interestingly, the CID has all the details of top most four economic offenders Raji K Verghees, Thomas K Verghees, KV Verghees and Sajan K Verghees but in the absence of their photographs, the investigating agency is unable to trace them. The CID has traced their address to Kottayam in Kerala.
These most wanted economic offenders floated Oriental Finance and Exchange Company and lured the gullible people by offering exorbitant rates of interest. They collected deposits to the tune of Rs 1.40 crore and cheated the depositors without repaying their hard earned money.
The Central Crime Station, Hyderabad, registered a case (no. 61/87) on April 13, 1987 under Sections 409, 420 and 477 of IPC and Section 45 (s) of RBI Act.
Krushi Bank former chief K Venkateshwar Rao used to occupy the No. 1 slot in the list of wanted economic offenders in the State. But with Venkateswara Rao's arrest, Raji K Verghees has occupied his slot.
The other most wanted economic offenders in the CID list are Kulwinder Singh, G Ravinder, Idureddy Venkat Reddy, Pothubattula Seshagiri Rao, LT Ratna Paul, Manmohan Monga, Panchiparvala Kanya Nageswara Rao and Huzefa Ibrahim Bahroin (Charminar Bank).