In a major revelation, Bengaluru CID probe finds China link to instant loan apps

New Delhi: – Following the suicide of five people, an online platform giving quick loans at exorbitant rates had been exposed. After that, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued guidelines to caution the consumers regarding the online apps giving quick loans with minimum documentation. A startling revelation has been made in the Bengaluru Crime Investigation Department (CID) investigation of this matter. It has been exposed in the investigation that these apps giving instant loans are linked to China. This racket was being run under cover of fake companies and the Bengaluru CID also claimed that the information of the customers is stolen and misused.

Incidents of threatening the customers availing instant loans for recovery and misuse of telephones of these customers have also been revealed. Five instances of the customers committing suicide due to the harassment by these companies, giving instant loans also have been reported, in Telangana. After receiving a complaint in one such matter, the police swung into action. A call centre in Pune was raided in this connection, on Sunday, and three people were arrested. These include one Chinese woman. 101 laptops and 106 mobile phones have been seized in the raid on the call centre. The bank accounts of the company also have been frozen.

Three Chinese citizens have been arrested so far in this online loan fraud. On 25th December, the police arrested a Chinese citizen named Yi Bay alias Dennis, from Cyberabad. Yi Bay is from Shanghai, currently living in Delhi. He was running 11 instant loan apps. Through this, employed and small businessmen, from the age group of 20 to 40, were provided loans at exorbitant rates. Before this, in October, a Chinese citizen had been arrested in connection with the Illegal betting apps. Indians had been cheated for billions of rupees through these apps.

Hyderabad police have arrested 18 people, in seven matters, for harassing and threatening people and defaming them by posting their photographs on social media for inability to repay the loans in time. These arrests have been made from Gurugram and Hyderabad. Hyderabad police have also frozen 75 bank accounts having deposits of ₹4.73 billion.

Meanwhile, there has been a startling revelation in one of the matters of customer information theft through instant loan apps. The cyber cell of the Bengaluru CID claimed that these instant loans are linked to China. It is reported that police superintendent MD Sharath claimed that scientific evidence has been found in this respect. Bengaluru police raided two companies in this connection. Both these companies were managed from China. The servers and dashboards of the apps run by the companies were in China. The directors of the companies also are Chinese. Other than these the Bengaluru police have received information regarding one more company and it is claimed that this company is running 10 apps, dangling the carrot of instant loans.