Recovery agents ‘trigger’ lawyer’s heart attack

A 37-year-old man suffered a heart attack after he was allegedly detained in the police station for seven hours and traumatized in the presence of musclemen of a finance company, reports Sanjeev K Ahuja.

A 37-year-old man suffered a heart attack after he was allegedly detained in the police station for seven hours and traumatized in the presence of musclemen of a finance company.

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Mahender Kumar Chahar, a lawyer, drove his Hyundai Verna car into the Sector 15 police station on Saturday after allegedly being intercepted by henchmen of the finance company around 1 km from his house.

“After a torture of seven long hours during which police officials mediated to reach a compromise between the henchmen and me, I was handed over my car keys. It was then that I felt acute pain in my chest. I immediately drove to Escorts Kalyani Hospital at MG Road and collapsed at the gates,” Chahar claimed. “I don’t know who took me in and admitted me in the heart care unit.”

Chahar, a resident of Patel Nagar near Sector 15, had got his car financed by a prominent finance company in 2007 with an EMI of Rs 14,884.

“I have been paying EMIs on a regular basis but recently I opted to settle the balance amount and pay a lump sum and get a no objection certificate. But the company insisted on carrying on with the EMIs. I wrote them but got no response. I got a stay order from a local court against the EMIs,” Chahar said.

Chahar said he showed the stay order to the police but they allegedly asked him to stay. “I told SHO Devender Singh I was feeling some pain in my chest but he did not pay heed.”

“Chahar told me that he was feeling chest pain.... But he was not coerced at the police station,” the SHO said.

Doctors attending to Chahar confirmed he had suffered a minor heart attack.

The company’s senior general manager could not be contacted at her Mumbai office for her comments despite repeated attempts.