KADAPA: The crackdown on loan app organisers and those facilitating or supporting them continued on Tuesday with the state police arresting five persons, including one who was running an unlicensed telecall centre at Madhapur in Hyderabad.
The accused, S Sai Kumar, was running the call centre and making calls to the borrowers demanding repayment of the loan amount. He was even intimidating the borrowers, besides sending derogatory messages to their family members and friends.
Kadapa district Superintendent of Police KKN Anburajan said they received a complaint from Bandi Sai Kumar Reddy of CK Dinne mandal against harassment by loan app organisers. Special teams were formed to investigate the case and accused was arrested.
The complainant, who works as a marketing manager in a cement company, applied for a Rs 95,000 loan from the ‘Rupees Cash - Rupees Loan’ app by uploading his phone number and Aadhaar card details. The app organisers credited Rs 65,000 into Reddy’s account.
Though Reddy paid more than Rs 3.71 lakh through 52 transactions, the organisers continued to harass him to pay another Rs 99,000. They threatened to send messages to their family members and friends of Reddy branding him as a cheater. Tracing the UPI IDs and the account numbers used by the organisers, the police narrowed down the accused.
One of them, Sai Kumar, was running ITEDON Solutions Private Limited, an unlicensed call centre in Madhapur. He was getting the amount transferred to his employee's and friends' accounts. After taking commission, he was transferring the same to the app organisers.
The SP said they identified transactions worth Rs 5 crore done through the accounts of the employees and friends of Sai Kumar. The sum was transferred to the app organisers’ account. The main accused in the case were identified as Anbu of Tamil Nadu and John Yadav of Rajasthan. Apart from Sai Kumar of Kothagudem district in Telangana, police arrested J Siva of Nagarkurnool, Palakollu Sai Teja of Kothagudem, N Naveen Goud and P Srikanth of Hyderabad.
The SP urged people not to furnish their bank account details and OTPs to any other second person either known or unknown that may not only conduit the flow of money from innocents to cheaters. Stern action would also be taken against ITEDON Solutions Private Limited and other accused in the case.