BEFORE THE DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES
REDRESSAL COMMISSION, JALANDHAR.
Complaint No.248 of 2020
Date of Instt. 24.08.2020
Date of Decision: 07.03.2022
Amandeep aged about 35 years son of Sh. Gurmukh Singh resident of House No.B11/490, Chogitti, Jalandhar.
..........Complainant
Versus
1. Balaji Capital Finance Limited, Building No.1/823, 1.2nd Floor, Mumbai Bandra Kurla, Complax T-20, 2nd Block Mumbai, Maharastra-400050 through its M. D., Partners, Manager, Authorized Representative.
2. Aashish Verma Customer Executive of Balaji Capital Finance Limited, Building No.1/823, 1.2nd Floor, Mumbai Bandra Kurla, Complax t-20, 2nd Block Mumbai, Maharastra-400050.
3. Deepak Customer Executive of Balaji Capital Finance Limited, Building No.1/823, 1.2nd Floor, Mumbai Bandra Kurla, Complax t-20, 2nd Block Mumbai, Maharastra-400050.
4. Sanjay Bomna Customer Executive of Balaji Capital Finance Limited, Building No.1/823, 1.2nd Floor, Mumbai Bandra Kurla, Complax t-20, 2nd Block Mumbai, Maharastra-400050.
5. Prem Lal Customer Executive of Balaji Capital Finance Limited, Building No.1/823, 1.2nd Floor, Mumbai Bandra Kurla, Complax t-20, 2nd Block Mumbai, Maharastra-400050.
….….. Opposite Parties
Complaint Under the Consumer Protection Act.
Before: Dr. Harveen Bhardwaj (President)
Smt. Jyotsna (Member)
Present: Sh. R. K. Bhandari, Adv. Counsel for the Complainant.
OPs No.1 to 5 exparte.
Order
Jyotsna (Member)
1. The instant complaint has been filed by the complainant, wherein it is alleged that the OP No.1 is dealing in providing personal loans and had made number of assurance through advertisement in news papers with regard to “Easy Loan” and the same was being published by the OP No.1 in Dainik Bhaskar, Jalandhar Bhaskar edition. That the complainant was in badly need of the funds for his domestic requirement and the complainant on being enticed by the false advertisement, the complainant contacted the OPs as and when he read the advertisement of the OPs in April, 2019 for obtaining personal loan for the sum of Rs.10,00,000/-. The officials of OP No.1 initially demanded the identity proofs of the complainant. The complainant provided all the documents required by the officials of the OPs. That thereafter the OPs No.3 & 4 contacted the complainant on different occasions to deposit some charges for the processing the loan procedure. The complainant initially paid Rs.2500/- to the OPs, demanded by them as Agreement Fee. The complainant deposited sum of Rs.44,200/- in the bank account of OP No.3 having A/c No.606910110020219 and sum of Rs.15,200/- in the bank account of OP No.4 having A/c No.2546101012724 and similarly on the asking of OP No.5 the complainant transferred the sum of Rs.15,300/- through Paytm and Money Transfer in the account of OP No.5 for the charges as per the requirement of the OPs. Thereafter the OPs showed approval letter of Rs.5,00,000/- to the complainant. The approval letter, cheques are sent to the complainant through Whatsapp in order to show the complainant that his loan process was in progress. The complainant contacted the OP No.2 that he applied the personal loan of Rs.10,00,000/-, buyer the OPs have approved the loan of only Rs.5,00,000/- then the OP No.2 told the complainant that the loan amount of the complainant will be enhanced and the complainant has to pay some more charges for the approval of the required loan. The complainant again demanded sum of Rs.12,772/- for Loan Protection Insurance of the complainant and same was paid by the complainant through Paytm on 15.07.2019 to the OPs. Moreover, the complainant on many occasions deposited the amount in the different accounts of the OPs as demanded by them, the complainant paid total sum of Rs.1,45,000/- from Jalandhar to the OPs. That the complainant is employee in a private company at Jalandhar and his monthly salary is not more than Rs.13,000/- p. m. The complainant badly needed the money in order to fulfill his personal requirements and the complainant paid the said Rs.1,45,000/- to the OPs after mortgaging the gold ornaments of his newly wedded wife. The OPs have crossed their limits, when the OPs again demanded sum of Rs.10,000/- from the complainant as last requirement and this time it was beyond the approach of the complainant. The complainant has already paid huge amount of Rs.1,45,000/- to the OPs in order to fulfill the requirements from his part. Both these documents were also sent to the complainant on his whatsup number. That the acts of the OPs have dragged the complainant into the financial crises. The complainant further has no faith on the OPs and does not want to take any loan from the OPs and requires his amount of Rs.1,45,000/- back from the Prescription slip. That the act of the OPs are illegal, ultra virus and against the laws of natural justice. That the complainant sent a legal notice dated 14.11.2019 to the OPs, but all in vain and as such, necessity arose to file the present complaint with the prayer that the complaint of the complainant may be accepted and OPs be directed to refund the amount of Rs.1,45,000/- from the OPs alongwith interest @ 12% per annum and further OPs be directed to pay compensation of Rs.50,000/- for causing mental tension and harassment to the complainant and Rs.5500/- as litigation expenses.
2. Notice of the complaint was sent by regd. Post at the given address but were received with the comment “not known”. Thereafter publication in the newspaper was made but despite publication all the OPs failed to appear and ultimately, all the OPs were proceeded against exparte.
3. In order to prove his exparte version, the complainant produced on the file his respective evidence.
4. We have heard the argument from learned counsel for the complainant and have also gone through the case file very minutely.
5. The complainant has claimed in the complaint that OP No.1 is dealing in providing personal loan and had made number of assurance with regard to easy loan in Dainik Bhaskar, Jalandhar Bhaskar edition, Newspaper (Ex.C-1). While going through Ex.C-1 we find that a small advertisement in the classified column was issued by Balaji Finance (Regd.) Co. No address was given, but a mobile no.085700-96724 was mentioned. On the other hand, in the complaint, OP No.1 is Balaji Capital Finance Limited, Building No.1/823, 1.2nd Floor, Mumbai Bandra Kurla, Complax T-20, 2nd Block Mumbai, Maharastra-400050, which is a different entity from the one published in advertisement. The complainant contacted the person on the phone number mentioned in the advertisement for grant of personal loan to him. Thereafter, OPs No.3 & 4 pretending themselves to be customer executive of Balaji Capital Finance Ltd. contacted the complainant and sent him a letter (Ex.C-2) on whatsapp on the letter head of Balaji Financial Service another separate entity. This letter contains besides other stamps, stamp of Reserve Bank of India also. This small letter contains numerous grammatical errors and its language shows that it has not been drafted by an educated person. The letter head, signatures and stamps seems to be photo-shopped. Based on this letter, the complainant transferred Rs.2500/- (Ex.C-9) on 11.07.2019, Rs.12800/- on 15.07.2019 (Ex.C-13) in the account of Prem Lal/OP No.5. Rs.18,600/- on 16.07.2019 (Ex.C3), Rs.10,000/- on 18.07.2019 (Ex.C-4) and Rs.15,600/- (Ex.C-5) in the account of Deepak/OP No.3 and Rs.15,200/- on 27.08.2019 (Ex.C-6) to Sanjay Bomna/OP No.4. There is nothing on the record to prove that OP No.3, OP No.4 and OP No.5 to whom payments have been made are customer executive of OP No.1 and their where about is not known to the complainant. The copies of documents claimed by the claimant as approved letter and agreement (Ex.C-10, Ex.C-11, Ex.C-12, Ex.C-15 and Ex.C-16 received by him on whatsapp also seem to be forged one, after going through their contents and language. It seems fake advertisement was also given in the newspaper to defraud the potential customers. The complainant has failed to appreciate that one present per annum interest and further discount of 60% on interest as mentioned in the advertisement is not feasible. Even the interest rate of saving bank account is 2.75% per annum. This type of cases does not come in the purview of this Commission. It seems that fraud has been committed on the complainant and this type of cases require proper trial and cannot be completed in summary proceedings and therefore, does not fall under the purview of Consumer Commission and accordingly, the same is dismissed with liberty to the complainant to file the same before the appropriate Court, if complainant desired, with no order of cost. Parties will bear their own costs. This complaint could not be decided within stipulated time frame due to rush of work.
6. Copies of the order be supplied to the parties free of cost, as per Rules. File be indexed and consigned to the record room.
Dated Jyotsna Dr. Harveen Bhardwaj
07.03.2022 Member President
