Harassment by digital lending app drives woman to end life in Mancherial

Mancherial: Unable to bear alleged harassment by digital money lending applications, a married woman ended life by hanging in Mancherial on Wednesday. It was the first such an instance to be reported in the district. Mancherial Inspector B Narayana Naik said that the victim was Bollu Kalyani (30), a homemaker from Gopalwada in the town.

Kalyani resorted to the drastic step when the staffers of the micro-loan application, Hello Rupee App and some other applications insulted her for delaying repayment of a loan by sharing her contact number in WhatsApp groups. She ended her life when none was present. It was not known how much loan she availed from the lender and why she took the loan.

Rupa, the mother of Kalyani, lodged a complaint with police. A case was registered against seven digital applications such as Hello Rupee, Small Loan, Basic Loan, Money Loan, Lending Channel, Loan Product and Shine Loan under the section 306 (Abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code. Investigations got underway.

Mancherial in-charge Deputy Commissioner of Police Akhil Mahajan requested the public to come forward to report the harassment by lending applications. He urged the victims not to commit suicides. He advised the citizens not to fall prey to the applications, which charge exorbitant rates of interest and harass customers by exposing their identity in social media platforms.