Usury cases: HC issues notice to DGP, finance secretary

The Madras High Court today issued notice to the Tamil Nadu police chief and state finance secretary asking them to file counter to a petition seeking to set up a separate team for investigating usury cases.
A division bench of the court's Madurai bench, comprising Justices Venugopal and Abdul Quodhose, directed the DGP and the secretary to file their counter before December 4.
The petitioner, Kanagavel Pandian of Tirunelveli district, alleged that rowdies and politically influential persons were involved in usury.
The usury cases should be investigated by a separate team and also a committee should be formed to create awareness about the evils of usury, he submitted.

The usury menace came to the fore with a couple setting themselves and their daughters, aged two and five, on fire at the collectorate complex in Tirunelveli on October 23 protesting 'harassment' by a money lender.
While the woman and the children died the same day, the man succumbed to burn injuries the next day.