Hyderabad (Telangana):A month after the Telangana Police began the crackdown on illegal instant loan apps following suicide by five persons, the investigation showed a deeper Chinese link to the scam.
After taking at least four Chinese nationals into custody for running the illegal apps, the cops are now probing the role of some other Chinese.
In the latest incident, Cyberabad police arrested three persons in connection with instant personal loan apps on January 22.
Those arrested are Hemanth Kumar Jha, director of Flash Cash Pvt limited, Gurugram, V. Manjunath, HR Manager at Juss IT Technologies Pvt LTD., Bengaluru and Abdul Lauk, Manager/Team leader at TGHY Trust rock Pvt. limited, Bengaluru.
These arrests were made during the investigations into the suicide of one G. Chandra Mohan (38). He had taken Rs 70,000 loans from 11 different apps. "He repaid Rs 2 lakh to these apps in instalments but he was still being harassed for being a defaulter. This drove him to suicide," said P.V. Padmaja, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Balanagar), Cyberabad.
Chandra Mohan, working in a supermarket, hanged himself on January 2 due to the alleged harassment.
The police found in their investigations that the three companies were offering small loan amounts through different apps on Google Play Store and collecting repayments by way of harassment and blackmailing.
Hemanth developed apps with the help of one Michael of China and was running his office at Gurugram for maintaining the database of the customers.
Police were also probing the role of a Bhutan national, who lives in India and is the director of a company associated with the disbursement of loans through the apps.
The investigations revealed that after issuing loans to customers for seven days, the companies used to divide the customers into different categories and collect repayment first by calling them. In the next stage, they used to send SMS, then messages by WhatsApp and followed by emails. The final method was calling the relatives of the customers and defaming them.
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"To recover the loan from customers they practised different methods depending upon the dues. In case of higher dues, the treatment was very harsh, threatening and abusive. They also accessed the contacts of relatives and friends of the customers and sent them WhatsApp messages defaming the defaulters," the DCP said.
The companies were collecting 35 per cent interest rate per annum from the customers who repaid the loan amount on time and imposed huge penalties on defaulters. The harassment was starting soon after the customers exceeded their due date.
The police also found that these apps have tied-up with Non-Banking Financing Companies (NBFCs). Police said notices will be issued to all NBFCs. The police have also written to Google to take down the applications because of their criminal activities.
The modus operandi, in this case, is not different from other cases cracked by the police during the last month.
More than 30 accused, including four Chinese nationals, have been arrested by Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda police, the three commissionerates which cover Greater Hyderabad.
It was on December 4 that E.S. Yadav (23) of Narsapur in Medak district hanged himself, unable to bear the harassment by loan apps. He had taken a loan of around Rs 6,000.
K. Mounika (28), an agriculture extension officer, committed suicide by consuming poison on December 16. She had taken multiple loans from various apps to the extent of Rs 2.5 lakh.
On December 17, Sunil, a 29-year-old techie hanged himself in Hyderabad. He had taken a loan of Rs 70,000 to 80,000 and was asked to return more than Rs 2 lakh and when he could not repay, the representatives of apps defamed him by sending messages to all his contacts.