You Are At "RISK"

 You Are At "RISK"

    It was a middle-class house in the city, where a man had tied a cloth to the fan of one of the rooms and had hanged himself. The police went to that place and took down the dead body and asked the owner of the house who he was. The owner said that deceased person is his son Vinod, was 32 years old and was working in a private company While doing the panchanama (record of observation by five people) the police found a two-page letter on the table in the room. When they took it out and read it, deceased Vinod had written in it.

         I was earning a salary of Rs.18,000/- per month, out of which I used to spend Rs.1000/- and give the rest to my father to run the house. About a year ago we faced a serious financial problem. Then I asked money to my friends. He said that he can get a loan in an instant at a low interest rate through the loan App and told me to download an App. I downloaded it to my phone and applied for the loan. It said that I need to give permission to that App to see contacts, photos, etc. I agreed, then it asked for my PAN card, Aaadhar card and uploaded the bank details. And asked for the loan Rs 50,000/- mentioned that Per month One and three quarter interest per the rate and loan was credited to my Bank Account.

        I paid EMI installments for the first four months and so on. I couldn't pay the installment due to other problems, and from the next day the company's agent started calling me repeatedly and forcing me to pay the installment. After a week he came to our house and then came to our office and started harassing me. I asked known persons for a loan to pay the EMI, but no one helped me. After this the loan company called my friend who was in the contact list of my phone and told him to force me to pay the loan because I had given his name as surety for the loan I got.  Horrified friends told me about this, I consoled them by telling them that I had not given anyone's name as surety. When I still delayed, the company's agents stole my pictures and videos from my phone, converted them into obscene images and WhatsApped them to everyone in my contact list. When I contacted them in fear, they said that they will be satisfied only if the outstanding loan is paid. But  I am not able to pay the outstanding loan of Rs.35,000/-, I don't know what to do next. So I am committing suicide. Loan application company and its agents are responsible for my suicide.

        On reading this letter, the PSI registered a case of unnatural death and sent the body to the hospital for post-mortem. Meanwhile, based on this information, the DCP of that department realized that many families have been ruined by  the menace of loan applications. DCP directed the police concerned to register a case of extortion and provocation to suicide, against the loan app agency and its agents. DCP personally took charge of the investigation. Another case was filed under the  Information Technology Act against the loan  company for stealing private data from Vinod’s mobile phone. 

        Company agents Suresh and Vasanth, who had made threatening calls to Vinod's confiscated mobile phone, was interrogated. Both of them stated that they were not employees of the loan company and were hired to intimidate the borrowers. After arresting both of them, the police went to the loan App branch office in that city. Computers, phones, papers and other documents were seized there. The Branch Officer was taken into custody and subjected to severe interrogation. There Loan App headquarter is in Chennai and has 15 branches in state capitals of India. The branch offices contact the borrowers through the App and not only lend to them, but also collect the loans given. We do not force anyone to take a loan, our job is to make sure that whoever downloads our App and gets a loan repays the loan with interest on time. Because we have given them loan without any security. Most of the people will not pay back the loan and interest despite all our threats. We have kept five or six people as agents to make threatening calls that 30% of the people have not paid the loan. They are not employees of our organization, we will give them commission.

        It was further learned that the same loan App company had about 50 bank accounts in different cities of India and through these accounts it was giving loans to the applicants. Business worth more than one crore rupees was transacted daily in each branch. Branches send 50 percent of the returned loan and interest money to the head office in Chennai, where some money is converted into crypto currency and transferred to different accounts. The rest of the money was sent to the App's Malaysia and Vietnam offices through hawala channels. The company had remitted approximately Rs 300 crores abroad in the last two years.

        9 cases were registered in the last two years when the details of the cases of suicides due to inability to repay the loan taken from the Loan App were analyzed. All of them were terminated at the respective stations due to unnatural deaths. Then the police revived those cases and continued their investigation. Sections of Foreign Exchange Act were also applied to Vinod's suicide case. 

        Police tells the branch manager that if he helps police to arrest the Malaysian owner of the company, his sentence will be reduced. None of us know the name of the owner of the company and what he looks like. He said that we all do our communication through Apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, V - chat  etc., there is no connection through phone. The police then sent a WhatsApp message to the owner of the company through the manager's phone to trap. He requested to come to India immediately to talk about a huge and important business. Police  gave adequate answers to the questions asked. Then the owner of the company came to India with his two partners, when they came out of airport the police arrested them and interrogated them all. They developed a loan App and used it in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Myanmar and India. He said that our business model is  same everywhere. In Vinod’s case all of them were arrested and sent to judicial custody in the death case itself. The case need to come to trial.(1)

        A loan app scam is basically something that makes people to think that they will give loan instantly with low interest. In this technological era, one in three adults are victim of loan scam. They will force you to download this app and they tell you process will be easy without any work. When you download the app they will take complete excess of your mobile and data. Without your knowledge they will steal the data and they will follow you. After you take loan from them, once if you delay to pay them EMI, they will call your contacts and inform them about you and they misguide your behavior. And will edit your pictures with someone else or your nude pictures  and abusive texts and they will send to your contacts and they will threat you. Day by day loan scam is high. So, before taking loan in app or downloading app or clicking on any link, give attention and be careful with loan app. They will destroy your peace and happiness. Think twice before downloading any unnecessary Apps and believing those Apps blindly. Youngsters even though well educated fall prey to these Apps and loose their lives. 

Reference

1] Dr.D.V Guruprasad, 2023 October 15, “Saala Padeyuvaaga Yechhara”, A Kshana, Vijayavani, Bengaluru, Page No- IV