VIJAYAWADA: The city police on Thursday arrested seven people working for two mobile loan applications for their involvement in abetting the suicide of an auto driver. Speaking to reporters, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Vishal Gunni said Patamata police had registered a case of abetment of suicide after Lanka Manikanta, a 33-year-old auto driver, ended his life unable to bear the harassment of loan app organisers.
The accused had reportedly shared Manikanta’s morphed pictures with his friends and family, and demanded him to pay extra money even though he had cleared his debt of Rs 20,000. Depressed, the auto driver committed suicide.City police commissioner Kanthi Rana Tata formed five special teams and traced the accused based on Manikanta’s WhatsApp messages and call record data.
“The teams were sent to Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Karnataka to nab the culprits. Of the seven accused, Sohail and Lateef were working for Vanisho Technology in Pune, while Naveen Reddy, Shankarappa Manjunath and Arun Mathur from Jaipur, Anurag Singh and Ritwik Ahirwar from Bhopal were working for Gibsoner Technology. All of them have been produced before a court, the DCP said.
The probe revealed that the accused were using 138 bank accounts and had made transactions to the tune of Rs 8 crore. While some of the bank accounts were opened using fake addresses, the others belonged to youngsters who were lured into lending their bank account for a commission.Vishal said, “The amount repaid by borrowers would be deposited into the bank accounts lent on commission basis. The money is then routed into the suspected bank accounts of the kingpins.”
(Suicide helplines -- Maithri, Cochin: +91 239 6272; Sumaitri, New Delhi: 2338 9090, Sneha, Chennai: 91-44-2464 0050, 91-44-2464 0060, Aasra, Mumbai: 9820466726, Fortis MentalHealth: 8376804102)