InfraLive September-15, 2025

Exploiting Farmers in Difficulties – Kisan Gold Card www.infralive.com 58 InfraLIVE September 15, 2025 internal files under which they had taken the undated cheques. This way HDFC mentally harasses the poor farmers by unethically initiating crim- inal cases against them. They then get coerced into settling the dues under OTS. It is a common practice in HDFC that after approving OTS, the decision and amount is not communicated to the farmer inwriting, and some sort of private negotiations take place with the farmers. Even if a farmer comes to know theOTS amount informally, and tenders that agreed amount at the HDFC branch, the branch refuses to accept it. Recently, two such cases came to light in legal proceedings initiated by HDFC before the court of Judge Ms Richu, Sirsa, Haryana. The accused told the court that the bank was not accepting the money agreed under OTS. The accused farmer had carried the amount with him to the court. Even before court, the bank official did not accept the amount. When the court reprimanded the bank official present in the court to explain, then he told the truth. From his laptop, he showed the internal approval to the judge for the OTS amount. He also admitted that the branch is not accepting payment, because of infor- mal instructions fromabove. Taking strong view on this, the court ordered “explanation from the Head Office of HDFC”. On the next date of hearing, the court in its order dated January 16, 2025, stated “Ex- planation report received through e- mail from MD Office, Mumbai. Perusal of the report shows that MD, HDFC Bank Mumbai took the order of this court in a very casual man- ner.” To justify on-hold instructions, they created a story, that the other two accounts of the borrower were still not settled. But, we checked up the bal- ance in the other two accounts, it was a meagre amount of Rs 130,600 and Rs 47,500, under term loan. What happened finally was beyond shocking. Instead of sacking the 'offi- cials above', who had put the execu- tion of OTS approvals on hold, HDFC sacked its officer who told the truth to the court about the actual status of OTS. HDFC says, he breached confidentiality clause stated in his appointment letter! Truth be told, it is the anti-farmer actions of HDFC that is in breach of govern- ment policy, lawand justice. The entire matter warrants a thorough investigation, and investigative agencies must step in to investigate Mr Sashidhar’s corruption. Also, the question whether he is using public funds or his own personal money to defend himself against these cor- ruption charges warrants investi- gation. The continued tenure of Mr Sashidhar as MD & CEO of HDFC, amidst ongoing investiga- tions, constitutes a shocking abro- gation of duty by the Chairman, the HDFC Board of Directors, and the Reserve Bank of India. This decision profoundly exposes the Bank to a multitude of lawsuits and litigation from both local and international investors.