10 February,2011 06:22 AM IST | | Manjunath L Hanji
The accused would intimidate his debtors by threatening them with the gun; had invested over Rs 5 crore in the past 2 years
The Central Crime Branch (CCB) has arrested a 32-year-old moneylender who used to recover his money from debtors at gunpoint. The accused, HR Ganesh, used to intimidate his 'customers' by threatening them with an airgun.
Game over: Ganesh, the financier lent money on near-extortion rates
and used an airgun to threaten people.
CCB officials nabbed Ganesh following a series of complaints from small businessmen. Ganesh, a real estate agent by profession started earning money on the side by lending people money. But after his realty business failed, he turned to money lending full time.
Then, in 2008, he opened his own firm, SS Enterprises at HSR Layout. He would lend money to small businessmen and hawkers at a 20-25 per cent interest, and threaten them with a gun if they were late in payments.
In a short time, he found that he was making more money, and realised that it was a flourishing business. The profits emboldened him, and he even invested in the film industry. Later, he hired goons to recover his money, and would accept property papers as mortgage. In HSR Layout alone, around 15 persons lost their properties after being unable to pay Ganesh back.
End of days
As his notoriety increased, so did the complaints against him. The HSR Layout police swung into action, and found that Ganesh was not just lending money on near-extortion rates, but making serious threats to people who owed him.
On his arrest, the police seized numerous property papers, an airgun, and four two-wheelers. ACP SH Duggappa said, "Ganesh was using a gun to threaten everyone who had borrowed money from him. At present, his investments exceed Rs 5 crore, over a period of two years. There are many others like him in the city, and we are on the look out for them."
