Standing by its earlier view that banks like ICICI Bank cannot employ musclemen to recover loans, the Delhi High Court has refused to modify its previous order that virtually indicted the bank for abetting the suicide of a youth who reportedly defaulted on his credit repayment.The observations made by the court in its earlier order dated July 13 "were made consciously and there are no reasons to expunge the same," Justice S N Agarwal observed in a terse order while dismissing ICICI's application seeking the expunging of certain critical observations made by him.In the July 13 order, Agarwal, while directing the police to expedite investigations into the suicide of Himanshu Dev Sharma, 34, allegedly abetted by the strong arm tactics adopted by the bank, passed strong observations against new generation financial institutions for employing musclemen to recover their loans. Agarwal, on perusing the complaint by the deceased's mother, observed that "the proximate cause of death of the deceased that led him to commit suicide was on account of humiliation caused by the bank people from where loan was taken by him." The High Court had further observed that "the modus operandi employed by banks like ICICI for realisation of their loan amount and for recovering the possession of the vehicle against which loans were given is extra legal and by no stretch of imagination can be permitted to employ musclemen and goons for recovery of their dues even from defaulting party." Stung by the observations, ICICI moved an application before the court pleading that the remarks be expunged on the ground that they affected the bank's image among the public. Sharma, a fast food centre owner, had comitted suicide on October 21, 2005, by hanging himself at his house in Nehru Nagar, Srinivaspuri, after he was allegedly intimidated and humiliated by agents employed by the bank for recovering a loan amount. After his suicide, Sharma's mother Shanti Devi moved the Delhi High Court seeking an investigation into the suicide and action against the personnel employed by the bank. In her petition, she contended that Sharma took the extreme step as the bank had employed musclemen who intimidated her son and carried away his motorcycle for defaulting on the payment of a loan instalment.
