Page 99 - A Banker Down the Rabbit Hole

and not with the bank employees who cannot fight because they are
gentlemen. They also asked him to apologize and close the issue and also
requested the SHO to resolve the issue amicably.

We approached the SHO and requested him to work out a respectable
resolution so that he does not misbehave again and not try to harm us.
If no action is taken, he would get emboldened as in past, as no previous
manager had reported such similar incident to higher ups in bank nor to
police. Moreover, we could not wait for filing the suit for recovery against
him any more and he had threatened to kill us in that eventuality.

He called the borrower and asked him to apologize in writing and give
written assurance not to harm anyone in the bank. He refused to admit
in writing what he had done. The SHO asked a head constable, "Go and
lock him up till I return after 5 days from outstation duty." This had an
impact and he gave a brief account of the incident and gave written
assurance not to harm us. Each party was given a copy of his statement
stamped and signed by the SHO retaining the original at the police station.

Possibly, due to this kind of extreme stress for some days or some other
reason, me and our Loan Officer both were down with fever for a few
days and could not attend office immediately. Later we reported the
matter to our higher office and submitted the report with copy of written
assurance from the borrower so that if he really happened to harm either
or both of us, the first suspicion should be on him for interrogation. The
borrower knew a bit of law being a drop out of Law College. Fortunately
enough, he did not enter the premises for my remaining tenure at that
branch.

But we were apprehensive and decided to move together in the field as
well as to travel to branch to thwart any such untoward incident. Once
he indicated to our armed guard residing near the branch that he would
throw his young child in front of our motorcycle and charge us for an
attempt to kill the child. We became more cautious against any such

96 | A Banker down the Rabbit Hole