3 held in loan app fraud case in Telangana

Three people, including the director of an app-based instant loan company, were arrested here by Balanagar and Pet-Basheerabad police on Friday in connection with the "forced killing" of a man on January 2.

The three accused have been identified as --Hemanth Kumar Jha, director of Flash Cash Pvt Ltd, Gurugram, V Manjunath of Juss IT Technologies Pvt Ltd., Bengaluru, and Abdul Lauk of TGHY Trust Rock Pvt. Ltd, Bengaluru.

According to the police, the complaint was filed by one M Santosh Kumar, who alleged that for the past 12 years his brother-in-law Chandra Mohan borrowed money from more than 11 instant loan apps and repaid over Rs 2 lakh. However, for the past few months, he could not pay installments due to which the compes were harassing him resulting him to resort to suicide at his residence.

The compes operated Rupee Plus, Kush Cash, Money More and Cashmap apps. Directors of Juss IT Ashwin and Sandeep and one Kalsang Tenzing from Bhutan of TGHY Trust Rock are at large, Balanagar DCP P.V. Padmaja said on Friday.

A case has been registered under Information Technology Act 2000 an investigation is underway.

During the course of the investigation, police found that the apps from which Chandra Mohan borrowed loans were operated from different parts of the country, including Delhi and Bengaluru. Special teams were formed and three people were taken into custody.

The accused used to offer small loan amounts with different apps and collecting repayments by way of harassment and blackmailing. The loan apps are available in the Google play store."The accused Hemanth developed the apps with the help of one Michael of China and was running his office at Gurgaon, Haryana for maintaining the database of the customers and placed them in Google play store for easy download and available to customers," the police said.

Similarly, Manjunath and Abdul Lauk who are working for two different compes in Bangalore also adopted the same method by developing their own apps and looted people.Police have frozen over Rs 65 lakh in seven bank accounts and seized two laptops and five mobiles from their possession.

The police said that these compes used to operate different bank accounts to provide loans to customers and the loan amount paid by the customers comes to other Nodal accounts which in turn pays it to the NBFCs (Non-Banking Financial compes).

In this case, notices will be issued to all Non-Banking Financial Compes (NBFC) and their managing directors and also notice to Google has been addressed to take down the applications because of their criminal activities, the police said.

Police have frozen over Rs 65 lakh in seven bank accounts and seized two laptops and five mobiles from their possession.

( With inputs from ANI )