BHUBANESWAR: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch has frozen four bank accounts of Mumbai-based Mahagram Payments Pvt Ltd having Rs 6.57 crore following complaints of fraud through loan apps.
The apps were not registered as non-banking financial companies (NBFC). The agency registered a case on April 21 in this connection after getting complaints from the Reserve Bank of India and several persons. Investigation revealed that over 1.5 lakh people, including many from Odisha, had downloaded two illegal loan apps Koko and Jojo through Play Store.
The apps offered small loan amounts ranging from Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 to its customers’ bank accounts. In some instances, money was credited to the customers even if they did not apply for loans through the apps. After the money was credited to customers’ bank accounts, officials of the two apps asked them to return the loan amount at a high rate of interest within a week.
When the customers confronted them over the high-interest rate, the officials began harassing them. Not only did they send inappropriate messages to the customers’ WhatsApp numbers, the officials also illegally gathered information on customers’ contact lists and sent messages to their family members and friends.
EOW officers ascertained that the loan amount availed through the apps was transferred to the bank accounts of the customers by Mahagram Payments. It is not registered with RBI as NBFC and had engaged a Gurgaon-based firm, IWT India, to collect money from the customers.
“Efforts are on to arrest the accused officials of Mahagram Payments. Three teams are coordinating with different states like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Hyderabad and Telangana to collect more information regarding the case,” said EOW DIG, Jai Narayan Pankaj.