An official of a private bank was arrested on Friday on charges of leading an assault on a stock trader, whose mother had allegedly defaulted on repaying a loan.

Anjan Pan, who works in the collection department of HDFC Bank, was picked up from Gillander House on NS Bose Road following a complaint by Abhishek Banerjee, whose mother had taken a personal loan of Rs 1.5 lakh from the bank in 2005.

Abhishek’s complaint with Muchipara police station states that Pan and five others turned up at his Raja Subodh Mallick Square office on Thursday and beat him up before taking away the central processing unit of one of the computers.

“Pan, who works in HFDC Bank’s collection department, has been charged with criminal conspiracy and criminal intimidation,” said Vineet Goyal, the deputy commissioner of police, headquarters. “The official failed to explain why he had raided Abhishek’s office.”

The bank, however, said none of its employees had been arrested.

“We do not send recovery agents to collect dues from our clients. And in this case, no one from the bank has been arrested,” said Madhusudan Hegde, the regional head (east) and senior vice-president of the bank.

Apart from the police, independent sources confirmed that Pan was an employee of HDFC Bank and had his office in Gillander House.

“He (Pan) introduced himself as an employee of HDFC Bank after he barged into my office on Thursday,” Abhishek told the police.

The sleuths said Abhishek’s mother Shikha, a resident of Baranagar, took the loan towards the end of 2005. “She was supposed to re-pay the loan in 36 equated monthly instalments. The first 17 instalments were paid regularly,” said Goyal.

But the problem started around the middle of last year, when Banerjee’s business went into a slump.

“Our payments became irregular from then on. We had contacted bank officials and told them that we would pay all our dues shortly and that we had no intention of duping them,” an officer quoted Banerjee as saying.

Recovery agents hired by the bank kept pursuing the Banerjees.

“They abused us over the phone and threatened us with dire consequences if we did not clear the dues soon,” Banerjee stated in his complaint.

On Thursday, Pan and five others barged into the trader’s office unannounced and ordered Banerjee to accompany them to the bank.

“I refused, telling them that the issue would be resolved soon as talks were on with the bank authorities,” said Banerjee.

Pan and his gang then allegedly assaulted him and demanded that he cough up Rs 2.5 lakh.

“He did not bother to explain why he was demanding so much money. When I refused to pay up, they assaulted me for the second time. The group finally left after snatching the central processing unit,” recalled Banerjee.

Deputy commissioner Goyal said the police were waiting for the bank to open on Friday. “Officers went to Gillander House and rounded up Pan. The complainant identified him.”

The sleuths are yet to identify Pan’s accomplices who had raided Banerjee’s office.