Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in India
My father had taken loan with ABN AMRO bank during 2007. But we were unaware of this loan, unfortunately he passed away 3 years back. There were no loan statements/reminders from the bank in the recent years. Suddenly somebody calls up and says I am an advocate XXX and case has been filed on your mother regarding this issue, since her name is mentioned for 'Nominee'. She would be behind the bars in another 2-3 hours and would be on 15 days remand. He threatened in such a way that made us feel really shocked and tensed. My mother has not signed on any loan documents nor was the co applicant for that loan.
He asked us to pay the whole amount in next few hours somehow. I said I would come to the bank and lets discuss on this. I also said right now I dont have any amount to pay though, but I would think about settling this amount seriously. But he kept warning calls for every one hour, later said he would send an executive, pay atleast half of the amount to hold the case for some time though you need to pay the full amount soon.
We never received any court notice to our address nor we received any communication from bank in person or through mails.
What could be done in this case? Since my father had kept my mother's name as Nominee would that be an issue forcing us to pay the full amount or is it possible to close this case by producing Death certificate of my father.
Please help us out in this case.
Thanks,
Ajit Bhaskaran
1 Answer from Attorneys
06.09.2013
Dear Ajit,
Any verbal telephone threat from any Tom, Dick and Harry is meaningless and you should not pay any heed to it. Even if you do get a legal notice, if it does not contain the loan A/c details with the principal amount, date of loan, branch name, installments paid, outstanding balance, copy of the loan agreement signed by your father, you should simply reply to the legal notice with a copy to the concerned bank branch to furnish all the above information to you along with the reason why the bank did not follow up for the outstanding all these years when your father was alive. A copy of your father's Death Certificate may also be attached with your reply. After you receive a reply, you should personally go and check and ask the concerned branch to produce all loan documents for your scrutiny and verification. Report the matter to the local Police if you keep getting such verbal threats without them being backed by proper evidence, and let the Police handle the miscreants.
Regards,