Loan recovery visit not a criminal offence: Cal HC
Kolkata: Holding that a loan recovery visit by officials of a state financial corporation cannot, by itself, amount to a criminal offence, the Calcutta High Court has quashed proceedings against a retired senior official of the West Bengal Financial Corporation (WBFC), terming continuation of the case a “gross abuse of the process of law”.
Justice Chaitali Chatterjee Das, after examining the FIR, case diary, and charge-sheet, noted that the case arose from a complaint lodged in November 2016 by the wife of a borrower, alleging that the WBFC official and three others trespassed into her residence during a loan recovery visit, abused and threatened her, and pushed her, after which her minor daughter fell ill.
The court found that although the complaint was filed in 2016, the investigation remained dormant for long periods. The case diary was silent on progress between November 2016 and September 2019, with no explanation for the nearly four-year delay in completing the probe and filing the charge-sheet.
The High Court noted that the investigating officer sought clarification from WBFC authorities on whether the visit was part of official recovery proceedings, but filed the charge-sheet without waiting for a response. Even after receiving a reply confirming that the visit was linked to the recovery of defaulted public funds, no further investigation was conducted.
The court recorded that the visiting team had gone to multiple addresses on the same day, but no complaints were lodged by any other person, and that the loan account reflected substantial unpaid dues.
Procedural lapses were flagged, including repeated recording of witness statements without explanation, failure to examine all relevant witnesses, omission of the co-accused named in the FIR from the charge-sheet, and failure to record the complainant’s statement before a magistrate. The court also noted that cognisance was taken without examining the inordinate delay in the investigation.
On an overall assessment of the allegations, materials collected, and surrounding circumstances, the High Court held that continuation of the proceedings would be an empty formality and an abuse of the legal process.
Accordingly, the proceedings pending before the 5th Judicial Magistrate’s court at Howrah were quashed, and the revision application was allowed.
