Eighteen years ago, when Dr Jasmine Udaywar chose not to pay off her bank loan and "disappeared" from Bilaspur, inviting a CBI pursuit, social networking phenomenon Facebook was 10 years away.
The site has now helped the probe agency connect the dots and arrest the absconding doctor from
Navi Mumbai and bring her back to Chhattisgarh.
"This is the first time the agency has nabbed a loan defaulter on a clue from Facebook," Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inspector SK Sinha said over phone from Bhilai Wednesday.
"The profile of her husband on Facebook matched information we had. The doctor, who had not opened any Facebook account, was astonished when our team zeroed in on her," Sinha added.
Udaywar, 57, had taken Rs. 4 lakh loan from a branch of the Bank of India - a nationalised bank - in Bilaspur in 1987-88 to start a clinic.
"Without paying the loan installments, she fled. The bank lodged a complaint in 1994. The CBI filed a chargesheet in court against her in 2000," said Sinha.
The special CBI court in Raipur declared Udaywar an absconder in 2007 and issued a non-bailable warrant against her.
The court, where Udaywar was produced after arrest, has sent her to judicial remand till February 4.
Udaywar's counsel SK Farhan said she had returned the money in 1996. Sinha, however, said her mortgaged property was sold to recover the loan. "It is a criminal case."