Hyderabad: A month after the Telangana Police began the crackdown on illegal instant loan apps following suicide by five persons the investigation has revealed a deeper Chinese link to the scam. The police have taken into custody at least four Chinese nationals for running the illegal apps. The police after arresting the four are also probing the role of some other Chinese nationals. In the latest incident, Cyberabad police arrested three persons in connection with instant personal loan apps January 22.
Those arrested are Hemanth Kumar Jha, director of Flash Cash Pvt limited, Gurgaon, V Manjunath, HR Manager at Juss IT Technologies Pvt Ltd, Bangalore and Abdul Lauk, Manager/Team leader at TGHY Trust Rock Pvt Ltd. 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 2,00,000 to these apps in installments . However, he was still being harassed for being a defaulter. This drove him to suicide,” said PV. Padmaja, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Balanagar), Cyberabad.
Chandra Mohan, working in a supermarket, hanged himself 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. They were collecting repayments by way of harassment and blackmailing.
Hemanth developed apps with the help of one Michael of China. He was running his office at Gurgaon for maintaining the database of the customers.
Police were also probing the role of a Bhutanese national, who lives in India. He 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. They would then 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.
“To recover the loan from customers they practiced 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. They imposed huge penalties on defaulters. The harassment was started 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 one 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 December 4 that ES Yadav (23) of Narsapur in Medak district hanged himself. He was 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 December 16. She had taken multiple loans from various apps to the extent of Rs 2.5 lakh.
Then December 17, Sunil, a 29-year-old techie hanged himself here. He had taken a loan of Rs 70,000 to 80,000 and was asked to return more than Rs 2,00,000. When he could not repay, the representatives of apps defamed him by sending messages to all his contacts.
According to Director General of Police M. Mahender Reddy, 50 cases were registered in connection with the instant loan apps. The first arrests were made on December 22 during the crackdown by Hyderabad and Cyberabad police on five call centres located here and in Gurgaon.
Hyderabad police arrested 11 people while Cyberabad police nabbed six people in the multi-crore money-lending racket.
Police claimed that thousands of people across India were targeted through instant loan apps after lockdown.
“The call centres here employed 600 telecallers and at Gufgaon there were nearly 500 telecallers. They were offering services to 30 money-lending apps. These money-lending app companies were illegally operating without following RBI guidelines. They were subjecting people who borrowed money to harassment, forcing some of them to commit suicide,” Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar said.
The first Chinese was arrested December 25 in the racket. He was identified as Yi Bai alias Dennis from Delhi. He was managing at least 11 such apps offering small loans at extremely high interest rates. The prime accused is suspected to be another Chinese national Zixia Zhang, who is believed to be currently in Singapore.
Police believe that four companies run by the accused allegedly carried out 1.4 crore transactions worth nearly Rs 21,000 crore. He was reportedly in touch with another Chinese national, Yuan Yuan alias Sissi alias Jennifer, who set up the operations in India but is believed to be in China.
