Kochi, December 6, 2024: The Kerala Police have registered 10 FIR’s against Keralaites who left Kuwait after availing bank loans.
In all, there are around 1,425 Keralaites, including 700 nurses, who have left Kuwait and have settled in other countries and the total outstanding loans that have not been repaid is to the tune of Rs 700 crore.
A team of Kuwait officials was in the state capital city and after having a detailed discussion with top Kerala Police officials, the decision was arrived to register cases against those who left Kuwait without closing the loans.
Based on the complaint, 10 FIRs have now been registered and the probe is led by an Inspector General of Police.
The 10 FIRs that have been registered are in the districts of Kottayam and Ernakulam.
The complainant in the case is a Kuwaiti national Muhammad Abdul Vassey Kamran and one case has been registered at the Kumarakom police station in Kottayam district.
The Consumer Credit department of the Gulf Bank, Kuwait, located at Al-Qibla, Mubarak-Al Kabeer Street, Safat, Kuwait, has given the loans.
The scam surfaced after 2022 when the Kuwaiti bank authorities found out that there had been defaults in loan repayments and on further perusal it came to light that many of those who availed of these loans ranging from Rs 50 lakh to more than Rs one crore, have already left Kuwait to countries like the US, the UK, Canada and to states in India.
Over the years the Kuwaiti currency (KD) has had the highest exchange rate and at present one KD fetches Rs 275, while one US Dollar fetches Rs 89.
Kuwait has a large number of people from Kerala and there is a huge population of nurses.