The state launched an offensive against instant money loan application companies. (Figurative)
Hyderabad:
Continuing the crackdown on instant app-based lenders, Telangana police said they arrested a Pune-based call center allegedly used to harass borrowers of online app companies for their recovery and arrested three people, including a Chinese woman.
The three were arrested based on a complaint by a Hyderbad resident that he was harassed by online loan application companies for paying a higher interest rate, police said.
The action follows the arrest of four people, including a Chinese national, on Friday for allegedly using coercive methods to recover installments from defaulters who had used 11 instant loan applications developed by them and availed loans.
The crackdown on instant money loan app companies was launched after three cases of suicides, including that of a software engineer, were reported in Telangana due to harassment by such companies in Telangana in the past month.
Those arrested in the latest action were the director of the call center in Pune, his wife, a Chinese national, who is helping him manage the company’s affairs, as well as a human resources manager, Rachakonda Police Commissioner said. , Mahesh M Bhagwat.
About 650 employees are working in the call center who are instructed to use their personal mobile numbers to call borrowers, their relatives, friends and insist on payment along with interest, police said.
According to the police, credit companies through instant loan applications offered loans to individuals and charged huge interest and processing fees, among others, and resorted to abuse, harassment and systematic threats from defaulters through call centers.
They even blackmail borrowers by sending false legal notices to their relatives and family members.
Cases have been registered in various state police stations based on several complaints that these firms allegedly obtained sensitive data such as contacts, photographs of clients’ mobile phones and used them to defame or blackmail to obtain loan repayment.
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