Published: Thursday August 15, 2013 MYT 12:00:00 AM
Updated: Thursday August 15, 2013 MYT 8:07:20 AM
Loan sharks harass teacher
Arumugam cannot take the mental torture anymore.
PETALING JAYA: Indian classical dance teacher S. Arumugam never expected his life to turn into a living nightmare when he took a loan from the father of one of his students in 2010.
The bharatanatyam exponent said he borrowed RM15,000 to fund one of his programmes that year and promised to pay an interest of 10% a month.
“I needed the money urgently and believed I would be able to settle the loan within a year,” said Arumugam, 53, who is known as Sri Arul in the Indian classical dance fraternity.
Arumugam said his troubles began when he missed paying the RM1,500 interest one month in 2011.
“My student’s father and his friend came to my house, where I conduct dance classes, and began to shout vulgarities at me,” he claimed.
He said that their regular “visits” and harassment caused his students to stop wanting to attend his dance classes at his home in Taman Koperasi Polis in Gombak.
“I have no students now. I am in a dire financial situation. I have yet to find ways to come up with the monthly RM1,500,” said Arumugam, adding that he had paid almost RM40,000 to the loan sharks.
He said the men would come late at night and start shouting outside his gate.
Arumugam said he had lodged three police reports at the Jinjang police station but the men were not deterred by it.
“I lodged the first report in November 2012 followed by another report in March this year,” he said, adding that his third report was lodged on the eve of Hari Raya.
He said he could no longer take the mental torture.
City CID chief Senior Asst Comm Datuk Ku Chin Wah confirmed the case, saying that police were investigating it under Section 506 and Section 323 of the Penal Code for criminal intimidation and voluntarily causing hurt.
