Say what you will but there’s little respect for the common man in India.

Everyone is out to get the common man in India. The government, police, employers, businesses, politicians and even banks are all after the little man.

Of all the shaitans (devils) at the back of the common man in India, banks are probably the worst.

Sending out Goondas (thugs) to beat up defaulting borrowers after enticing them in the first place to take out loans seems to be the norm than the exception with Indian banks.

Today’s Wall Street Journal (subscription required) has an interesting story on the use of aggressive tactics by collection agents hired by Indian banks to get defaulting borrowers to pay up.

After a violent attack on one individual in New Delhi,

the Delhi State Consumer Commission fined ICICI Bank, India’s largest privately owned bank by market value, almost $140,000 for what a judge called “the grossest kind of deficiency in service and unfair trade practice.” ICICI Bank has appealed the decision to the Delhi High Court, arguing that the consumer court doesn’t have the authority to impose such a large fine and that the collection agency should be held responsible for the attack, not the bank. It has also fired the collection agency responsible for the attack.

Banks have been warned by India’s Supreme Court, police and the Reserve Bank of India to stop the abuses in collection.

But we doubt these warnings will have any effect on the modern-day Indian Shylocks.