AKARTA, Indonesia -- Indonesian police say they have arrested three debt collectors hired by Citibank in the death of a customer at one of the bank's branches.
Police say Irzen Octa, the head of a small political party, was found dead Tuesday in the Citibank branch in southern Jakarta after he protested that his credit card bill had soared from $7,825 to $11,500.
South Jakarta police chief Col. Gatot Edy Pramono said Friday the suspects met with Octa in a small room and interrogated him roughly because they were angry about his protest. He said an autopsy found a ruptured blood vessel in his head and wounds on his nose.
Citibank said it has a strict code of conduct in debt collection and will cooperate with police to see if any of its employees failed to comply.
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Lawmaker Urges Bank Indonesia Take Action Against Violent Debt Collectors
The deputy head of the House of Representatives Commission XI overseeing financial affairs, Harry Azhar Azis, urged the Bank Indonesia (BI) to take action against violent debt collecting practices to protect customers.
"Debt collectors being used as agents of the bank is fine, but when they resort to violence, Bank Indonesia must be proactive. It's about time for BI to issue a strict regulation on debt collectors," Harry said.
Harry's comment was related to the death of the National Unifying Party (PPB) secretary general Irzen Okta, who died in a private room of a Citibank office at Menara Jamsostek on Jalan Gatot Subroto on Tuesday, supposedly after a dispute regarding his credit card debt.
According to Harry, if BI did not take any actions against violent debt collectors, House Commission XI would.
"Commission XI will make it part of our agenda unless BI takes immediate action," he said, adding that the governor of Bank Indonesia must also take some of the blame for Okta's death.
"It shows their is no such thing as customers protection," he said
Meanwhile, Okta's colleague, PPB treasurer Tubagus, said the victim came to Citibank to settle his credit card bill.
"He came to Citibank to negotiate settling the debt," Tubagus was quoted as saying by news portal Detik.com.
"He was a responsible person, that's why he came to the bank," Tubagus said.
Okta came to the bank on Tuesday morning to ask the bank about his soaring credit card bill. He had said that his initial bill was only Rp 48 million ($5,520), but the bank said it was Rp 100 million.
Okta was then escorted to a private room where he was questioned by the three bank employees, including two debt collectors. The three were in the room at the time of Okta's death, according to South Jakarta Police chief of detectives Comr. Budi Irawan.
An autopsy later showed that Okta had died from a brain hemorrhage.
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