Telangana launches clampdown on loan fraud

Special teams from the State raid firms across country, arrest 17 persons so far

Hyderabad: In a crackdown spanning multiple cities across the country and also spreading to China and Indonesia, the Telangana State Police is spearheading an intense effort to prevent more people from being victimised and driven to suicide by instant loan mobile applications.

Raids, triggered by the suicide deaths of three persons allegedly due to harassment by loan app executives and over 150 complaints in different police stations across Telangana, are continuing on multiple call centres and loan app offices across the country. Special teams comprising personnel of technical wings of the State Police assisted by the local police are part of the raids, with 17 persons arrested so far. Eleven of these were by the Hyderabad City Police and six were arrested by the Cyberabad Police. City Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar said special teams were camping in different spots across the country and that there would be more arrests soon.

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The police have also seized several laptops and other incriminating documents after raiding call centres and offices, which were run by the loan app companies who hire graduates or undergraduates paying them nominal salaries. “We are analysing the gadgets and documents seized during the raids,” Anjani Kumar said.

Preliminary investigation has revealed that the call centres in Hyderabad and other cities in south India were working as facilitators for a few companies having NBFC licenses and were based in New Delhi and Maharashtra. A big database of the clients was maintained with offers for ‘low interest loans’ sent via WhatsApp or direct SMS to clients. While the police are writing to Google to remove the instant loan apps from its Play Store as they were violating norms laid down for financial dealings in the country, Cyberabad Police Commissioner has asked the public to approach the police if anyone was harassing them for defaulting loans taken from digital money-lenders.

The City Police is also seeking the help of different law enforcement agencies to probe the role of Chinese nationals staying in Indonesia who are suspected to be running the illegal microfinance business.

“Our probe so far has revealed that a Chinese national visited Hyderabad and arranged the setting up of the call centre. We also have information about persons from Jakarta in Indonesia involved in the illegal business,” Anjani Kumar said, adding that the police found a copy of a passport of a Chinese national during raids at a Gurgaon call centre.

“We are probing from where funds were arranged and the mode of transfer of funds and repayment gateways,” said Avinash Mohanty, Joint Commissioner of Police (Detective Department), Hyderabad.

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