The Punjab National Bank which was at the receiving end of a massive Rs 13,000 crore fraud supposed to have been perpetrated by diamond baron Nirav Modi, has now decided to hire detectives to track absconding defaulters, as reported by India Today.
In the advertisement by the bank, it invited applications for detective agencies operating for the period of 2018-19, with the last date for the submission of the application being 5 May. As per the bank, it seeks to supplement efforts of field officials in recovering dues from NPA accounts with the help of these detective agencies.
The detectives are expected to borrowers, guarantors, mortgagors and legal heirs in India and abroad who are untraceable. Further, the detectives would need to ascertain the details of the said parties like, present location, income, businesses and assets. They would also have to uncover the bank accounts and credit facility details availed by these parties.
For the services, the bank has also revealed the payment structure. After uncovering the borrower location the detectives would be paid Rs 7,500 per person. For locating currently unknown asset properties, the bank would pay Rs 20,000 and for providing auxiliary information Rs 2,500 would be paid. If the detective agency failed to either locate the party or asset properties, they would be paid a maximum of Rs 3,000 and Rs 7,000 respectively.
Besides detailing out all the requirements and incentives, the bank has also cautioned against the use of any coercive means to achieve the said objectives, in line with a Supreme Court warning.
As per a PTI report, the bank is seeking to boost its chances of recovering about Rs 57,519 crore in bad loans. Besides hiring detectives, the bank has decided to name and shame defaulters to increase societal pressure and urge them to pay back. The bank has also decided to impound passports of about 150 wilful defaulters.
