Udaipur: Pratapgarh police raided the hideouts of alleged interest-loan mafia man Bhagwanlal Prajapat in Bhanawata village and seized a large quantity of gold, silver ornaments, vehicles, agricultural equipment and documents related to illegal transactions, as part of a campaign against interest-loan mafias.The action was taken under the direction of District Superintendent of Police B. Aditya. The special campaign was carried out against criminals and those who illegally extorted money. Police received information that an interest-loan mafia was exploiting villagers in Bhanawata town in the Kesariyawad police station area. Based on this a team conducted simultaneous raids at the accused’s hideouts in Bhanawata.Police said that during the raids at the residential house and under-construction mansion of Bhagwanlal Prajapat, officers found a large quantity of gold and silver ornaments, expensive luxury cars, tractors and documents, which were seized. Police listed the seized items as 32 tola of gold jewellery and 47.5 kilograms of silver ornaments mortgaged by rural women and men.A total of 28 vehicles were seized. Police also seized heavy machinery , along with an electronic money-counting machine.Documents seized included 67 stamp papers of 50, 100 and 500 rupees allegedly forcibly signed by villagers, 16 blank signed cheques, three cheques with amount and signature, six original RCs of vehicles, five bill books, two ledgers, four bank passbooks, seven account diaries, four ATM cards and two Apple iPhones.The police found that Bhagwanlal and his son Tulsiram took advantage of the helplessness of illiterate people in the rural areas. Police said they gave loans at high interest and kept borrowers’ gold ornaments, land papers, agricultural equipment and even financed vehicles as mortgage in their possession.
