Fly-by-night pawn brokers disappear with pledged gold jewellery
Multiple incidents of pawn brokers disappearing with pledged gold jewellery have been reported in Tamil Nadu. Police have launched investigations into these cases of cheating and criminal breach of trust.
Why it matters
These incidents highlight the risks associated with unregulated financial services and the vulnerability of lower-income individuals.
On Tuesday, a large group of men and women from Elumalai thronged the District Police Office with a complaint that a pawn broker shop functioning in their locality had downed the shutters.
The people complained that several of them, mostly belonging to lower economic strata, had pledged their gold jewellery and many of them had paid back the loan amount. However, they were not able to get back their valuables given as collateral.
Those managing the pawn shop were earlier dilly-dallying with some excuse or other for not returning the gold.
However, a few weeks back, they closed down the shop and disappeared.
The police said that 59 persons had pledged around 48 sovereigns of gold.
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