- Malayali businessman abscond with One and half crores Rupees
- Blade Companies cause bankruptcies among small-scale traders
- A scene from Shakunthalam performed by Delhi based school children.
- Special Report: Ayyappa Temple in New Delhi
- Detailed Report on Lord Ayyapa
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- States asked to implement V.R.Krishna Iyer Report on Women prisoners
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Malayali businessman abscond with One and half crores Rupees
keralamonitor.com One more Malayali businessman and his two brothers have absconded from Musanna, near Sohar in Oman leaving at least Indian Rupees 1.5 crores unpaid debts to leading electronic dealers. According to informed sources, Mr.Basheer who has been running the Musanna Import and Export company for several years did not come back from his native village in Kottayam district after the vacation and three days before his scheduled return to Musanna, two of his brothers who were managing the electronics sales shop also vanished.
'Basheer has been running a leading Electronic shop selling TV, VCR and other Audio-Video and electronic items. It is believed that he has left the country leaving huge amount of unpaid debt to dealers,' said sources. He has been absconding for the last two weeks and from his behaviour prior to the vanishing act, it is clear that he was planning to do it deliberately. Normally those who abscond misuse the credit facility offered by dealers and build up huge amount of credit. Before absconding they siphon off and send cash from the business to India. Sometimes, the local sponsor take money from the business leaving the Malayali businessman in a difficult position.
It is not the first time that an Indian businessman is absconding from Oman leaving huge amount of unpaid debt. However, in this case, Basheer has been a leading social figure in the Musanna area. He has been the member of the Board of Indian Social Club, Mulanda. "He was not on the board of Indian Social Club, Mulanda, but has been a member of the Management Committeee,' said a senior ISC official. Due to the fact that he was a member of the Indian Social Club, Mulanda Management Committee, local businessmen had more faith in him. His business has been one of the leading electronic shops in the area.
There has been a growing number of absconding cases involving Malayali businessman and salesman. The most recent case of Indian businessman absconding with huge amount of unpaid dabt was that of Twilight Trading. In this case, two Gujarathi businessmen who were running the Twilight Trading left overnight leaving several big businessman here in the dark. As the Twilight Trading was one of the leading trading outfits in Muscat, the vanishing act by its owners left many people in trouble. Recently, the Omani courts decided to liquidate the company and sell whatever assets left over by the Gujarathi brothers.
Twilight Trading, with head office in Mattrah was a well respected name among the trading community, till the two Gujarathi brothers left the country on a Diwali day, leaving huge amount of unpaid dues to creditors. The dues left by Twilight is believed to be running into millions of Indian rupees and the duo never came back. In another absconding case, owners of Gasitharam Group of Vegetarian restaurants left the country leaving huge amount of unpaid debt and even the workers salary.
Large number of ordinary Malayali workers and small scale businessmen in the Al Khuwair area of Oman were duped by a chit fund company run by two brothers who had been absconding with huge amount of money. One Mr.N.N.Rajan and his brother N.N. Sathyan, who were running a barber shop in the Al Khuwair area have been absconding with at least Omani Rial 30,000. (Indian Rs. 45 lakhs). The main culprit was reported arrested by the Thrichur police from Thrichur.
Sometimes back a building materials shop owner absconded leaving about RO 40,000 unpaid dues to Jotun Paints, a leading paint manufacturing unit in Rusayl.
In another recent cheating case, a number of Malayalis were duped by a Manglorean who absconded with huge amount of money collected through a dubious gold saving scheme and chit funds. Sadananda Karkera, an Indian from Manglore who used to conduct a saving scheme offerintg gold coins is the main culprit. It is estimated that several Malayalis and Mangloreans were duped by the culprit. The scheme was like a personal chit fund intended to save gold based on a point system. Some of the affected Malayalis have approached the Indian Embassy and even the social clubs with complaints. The culprit has been running a supermarket in Sohar through which he was conducting chit funds and other schemes.
Leading Dubai based Marketing Company has filed a complaint with the Royal Oman Police (Sohar) against an Indian salesman Santhosh (Kizhakkumpadam Madakara), son of K Rajan, Chirakkal House, Balipatnam Kannur who has been absconding with more than RO 25,000 (Rs. 28 lakhs) of the company. According to Al Reef officials, the company has lodged a complaint with the Indian Embassy, Muscat and a complaint will be lodged with the Kannur District Police Commissioner and Norka against the culprit who has been working in the company as salesman for the last four years.
December 19, 2001
Blade Companies cause bankruptcies among small-scale traderskeralamonitor.com
Muscat-Mounting bankruptcies and financial problems are causing serious difficulties to the small scale Malayali traders in the Gulf due to the very high interest rate charged by many "blade companies" illegally run by Malayalis themselves. According to informed sources, a young Malayali businessmen in Sohar -Musanna area committed suicide (name withheld), due to serious financial debt incurred by his family. Even though the middle class business family has been in Oman for about two decades, they had to borrow heavily from local blade companies at cutthroat interest rate to run a super market after their petty business of bringing fruits and vegetables from Dubai to local market stopped all of a sudden.
When the government decided that only nationals should do this job, many Malayalis who have been doing the business were left in a difficult financial situation. Last year a number of Malayalis faced serious financial situation when the tractor-driving job was nationalised. Many of them who bought tractors with borrowed money (either from banks or blade companies) had to dispose of their means of livelihood and leave the country.
According to sources, there are number of local blade companies, which charge abnormal interest rates, forcing many small-scale traders and supermarket owners to abscond from the country. People who borrow RO 1000 or so to finance their small scale business at abnormal rate of interest have to start repaying the debt next day onwards and if the business faces any problem, they end up facing difficult financial situation. Since many expatriates who run petty trade do not have access to bank financing, such blade companies are doing booming business. Even though the Central bank prohibits such informal blade companies run by individuals or group of people, many such companies are operating.
Observers say that the situation is worse than the methods followed by blade companies in Kerala. Before lending to people they take post-dated cheques and if the cheque bounces, it becomes a criminal offense. The problem is complicated in the case of Malayalis who have got huge amount of bank borrowings back home as many of them build palatial buildings and banglows in their hometown. There are number of cases where the supermarket owners close the shop overnight and flee the country, leaving bad name for the Malayali community. Many wholesale suppliers give 90-day credit to such shops, giving enough room for absconding. There are hundreds of small shops and supermarkets run by Malayali businessmen in the Gulf.
