KARIMNAGAR: Two youth died by suicide allegedly unable to bear harassment by recovery agents of instant loan app and an online gaming site here in erstwhile Karimnagar district.
The victims were identified as Dathu Prashant (25), working as overseer in Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) and Tarun Reddy, an Intermediate student and resident of Antaragam village of Jagtial rural mandal.
Prashant had been living with his parents Rajanna and Mallishwari in Godavarikhani of Peddapalli district since 2017.
Prashant recently cleared the under manager official examinations also. During leisure time, he used to play online cricket betting game for the Singareni team. As he lost money in betting, he took Rs 60,000 loan through an instant loan app ‘Moneyview’ for a high rate of interest. But he failed to repay the loan on time.
Recovery agents of the loan app started making calls and when Prashant did not respond to their calls, they started making calls to his parents and began harassing them. By morphing his photos, they also allegedly created obscene images with other women and started sending them to his friends, relatives and family members. Feeling humiliated, Prashant left home on July 7. When Prashant did not return to his house even after two days, his parents lodged a complaint in the one town police station in Godavarikhani on July 9.
However, Prashant ended his life by jumping under a train on July 9 night between Ramagundam and Raghavapuram railway stations limits.
Prashant’ parents alleged that even after his death, the loan app representatives did not stop harassing them and for the past three days they were continuously making calls and sending obscene messages.
In another incident, Tarun Reddy who was studying Intermediate and resident of Antaragam village of Jagtial rural mandal lost Rs 1.8 lakh by playing online games. Since Sunday, loan app representatives started making calls to him.
Fearing that his father would beat him if he came to know about losing a huge amount of money by playing online games, Tarun Reddy went into the fields On Monday morning and tried to die by suicide after consuming pesticide.
His parents, who found Tarun Reddy in an unconscious state, immediately shifted him to a nearby hospital. But when his health condition turned bad, he was shifted to Karimnagar for better treatment. Tarun Reddy breathed his last on Tuesday while undergoing treatment in the Karimnagar Government Hospital.
