Chinese link: Instant loan app fraud busted, four arrested

HYDERABAD: The Cyberabad police busted an instant loan app fraud gang headed by a Chinese national by raiding a call centre here and the city police followed this up with the arrest of four persons.

The arrested were Yi Bai alias Dennis, Satyapal Khyalia, Aniruddh Malhotra, and Murathoti Richie Hemanth Seth. Main accused Zixia Zhang and another accused Umapathi gave a slip to the cops. Police seized two laptops and four mobile phones.

Police raided the call centre Cubevo Technology Pvt Ltd (Skyline) headed by the Chinese national and arrested him along with three others. Its head office was located in Delhi named Skyline Innovations Technologies India, registered at the Registrar of Companies, Gurgaon.

Cyberabad police commissioner V.C. Sajjanar said eight cases against loan apps were being investigated. In this case, the firm’s directors Zixia Zhang and Umapati alias Ajay developed 11 instant loan applications that offered loans to individuals and collected huge repayments by way of interest, processing charges, GST, default charges etc.

Once the loan period is over, they also charged a one per cent penalty. They even resorted to systematic abusing, harassing, and threatening of the defaulters through the call centres run by them.

The accused even blackmailed borrowers by sending fake legal notices to their relatives and family members.

Police received the first complaint on December 17 alleging harassment of loan application handlers. The complainant stated that he had applied for a loan of `2,015 for seven days. After deducting GST and the processing fee, he received `1,600 as loan on August 25.

Later, he received calls from different mobile numbers and was advised to take an instant loan from their applications. On their advice, he took a total loan of `1.2 lakh from 28 instant loan applications. Even though he repaid the loan amount — `2 lakh with interest — he received calls from different mobile numbers. Tele-callers started making abusive and threatening calls and they also blackmailed him by sending legal notices.

Police said it was not clear whether these applications were connected to any NBFC. Police advised citizens seeking such loans to first go through the terms and conditions and verify the licences of the companies as to whether they obtained permission for their business from RBI, district collector etc, and avoid downloading any app that seeks access to one’s contacts, files and gallery.

Meanwhile, the Hyderabad police arrested three persons — K/ Eshwar of Anniu Pvt Ltd and Madhusudhan and Satish Kumar of Truthigh Pvt Ltd, all natives of Bengaluru — in the instant loan app case on Friday.

The call centres were run by these men in the HSR layout area in Bengaluru with 350 executives. So far, 27 cases were registered by the Hyderabad police.

Avinash Mohanty, joint commissioner of police, Detective Department,  said, “We have identified 42 applications relating to instant loans and also 350 virtual accounts/bank accounts as payment gateways. An amount of around `87crore was frozen in these accounts.

During investigation, it found that two instant apps operated by the four companies — Liufang Technologies, Hotfull Technologies, Nabloom Technologies and Pin Print Technologies — were linked to the suicide of a person in Rajendranagar, a victim. Another six accounts were seen linked to the suicide of the Siddipet suicide victim.