Loan shark victim contemplates suicide to get out of crushing debt

Ramesh settled a friend's debt with a Dh42,000 loan from UAE banks and took on five credit cards. He still had his own car loan and family expenses to manage on a Dh4,500 monthly salary, and fell behind on payments.

SHARJAH // The stress and shame of a business deal gone bad, losing a job and intimidation by loan sharks can be enough to spur some people to think about ending their life.

Salesman Ramesh, 49, is a case in point, albeit through an act of kindness.

He agreed to be guarantor for a friend’s construction equipment business in India nine years ago, but he never imagined the havoc it would cause.

“For some time everything went smoothly, then I got a message from India that he committed suicide,” said Ramesh.

“He left a note to his wife and me saying sorry, he was not a cheat but was trapped. The collectors threatened me and my wife.

“My family said I was a fool, that I should sell my friend’s house but where would his family live?”

Ramesh settled his friend’s debt with a Dh42,000 loan from UAE banks, took on five credit cards and sold a plot of land in southern Kerala state in 2006.

He still had his own car loan and family expenses to manage on a Dh4,500 monthly salary, and fell behind on payments.

A travel ban was issued against him in 2010 for credit-card default.

It was then that Ramesh turned to the “blade mafia”, or illegal moneylenders, for cash to pay off the banks.

The name “blade” is due to cut-throat rates of up to 120 per cent interest.

Police and authorities have urged people to report loan sharks so that they can act on illegal transactions.

“I had no option because one bank wrote to my employer,” Ramesh said, sobbing. “I handle cash and cannot lose my manager’s trust.

“I had to clear that loan and show the bank clearance to my manager. Then I had to clear other loans because my job is my strength. What can I do if I lose my job?”

Leading a frugal lifestyle, he kept Dh250 for food and daily expenses, sent Dh150 to family and Dh600 to repay a bank loan in India, with the rest going as interest payments to the blade mafia.

With help from aid workers Ramesh’s loan has been reduced to Dh33,000, but he is losing hope after two suicide attempts by his wife in India.

He recently wrote to an aid worker: “If this goes on like this, there is no escape. Last few days I am thinking of suicide.”

Ramesh says he cannot see a way out of his woes.

“I tell my wife we will manage,” he said. “But how many years will go like this? Four years I have not seen my family. The blade people say I cannot leave the country.

“If anything happens to her what use is my life? I have one ambition: I want to live without debt for at least 1-2 years. I want to outlive this liability. But I don’t know if I have strength.”

Despite stories of despair, there are hundreds of instances where the consulate and Indian Community Welfare Committee (ICWC) have intervened to clear absconding cases, paid fines for expired visas and bought tickets home.

When marketing manager Sachin, 43, lost his job during the 2008 recession, he worked freelance and signed up for credit cards until he secured employment in 2010.

What started as Dh10,000 in outstanding dues rose to Dh85,000.

“You can’t keep going back to friends and family who have already helped,” Sachin said.

He was jailed for eight months in 2011 for card default and this forced his three children out of school because of unpaid fees.

“I started freelance again, put my kids back in school and things started getting better,” Sachin said.

Then life dealt him another blow when his wife died from ovarian cancer two months ago.

He did not have funds to pay to embalm her body or clear her from the mortuary, or fly to India to cremate her.

“He came to us when he lost his wife,” said K Kumar, chairman of ICWC.

“There were three children to consider with their mother lying in the mortuary so we helped as best we could.”

Sachin left the UAE last week after the intervention.

“I will return and settle the remaining loans,” he said. “I know the potential of this land.

“Whatever my problems, I believe we have no right to take our own life.

“These are my mistakes that piled up. I must live for my kids’ sake. I cannot falter, I cannot fail.”