Daijiworld Media Network - Puttur (SP)

Puttur, Apr 20: It has come to light that people purportedly representing a trust that has provided its address as Uppinangady in the taluk, promised loans to farmers at the rate of one percent per annum, and then cheated them by asking them to deposit 5 percent of the amount of loan needed as membership fee.

A farmer, Basavaraj Shivayogappa Muchagandi, resident of Shirol village in Nargund taluk, Gadag district, who had come to Uppinangady on Tuesday April 19 in search of the office bearers of the said trust, narrated his tale of woe to media persons.

"After reading an advertisement released through a newspaper during January 2015 by Multi-purpose Development Services Trust Uppinangady, I called the cellphone number provided in the advertisement seeking to understand the terms and conditions for sanctioning of the loan, as I was in need of loan. A person, who claimed himself to be the trust secretary, said that documents need to be submitted and my landed property should be mortgaged to the trust before sanctioning loan. He said that a sum of Rs 2,000 was to be paid towards obtaining legal opinion on property papers, which I paid. After a week, I received a call from a person who said that for availing Rs 30 lac loan I wanted, I would have to contribute five percent of the loan amount as share capital of the trust, and asked me to deposit Rs 1.5 lac. I raised loans from some people known to me and remitted this money by transferring it through bank account," he stated.

The farmer said that initially he was told that final stage verification of documents was in progress, after which the cellphone was found to have been switched off. He said even after about 14 months since he remitted money, he has been waiting for the loan.

It is reliably learnt that a large number of farmers from Chikkodi, Surpur, Srirangapatna, Bagalkot, Shivamogga, Kolar, Mysuru have been cheated through promising of loan through the said trust.