Warangal police on Sunday busted a gang operating mobile phone loaning app and arrested three persons in Bengaluru.
A Chinese national Erik Penglu, kingpin in the case, and another accused Padra Binda Ray are still at large. The three arrested, Debashish Das, B.R. Sanjay and Santosh Kumar Nayak, were brought from Benglauru to Warangal. They were presented before a local court there and remanded in judicial custody.
The arrested trio working in Bengaluru-based Shine Bey Technology private limited admitted to police that the Chinese national colluded with them to make the mobile loaning app to make a fast buck. They prepared mobile loaning apps and uploaded them on Google Play Store. They used to post ads about the apps named Fast Credit, Loan Pro and Smart Rupee on social media platforms, offering instant loans to netizens.
“When people downloaded the apps, we used to access their contact list, photos and personal information without their knowledge,” the arrested told the interrogators. They used to transfer money to customers through internet banking with a rider that the loan should be repaid within seven to 10 days. When the customers failed to repay the loan amounts, the arrested trio and the absconding Padra Binda Ray would call up the customers and abuse them in filthy language, Warangal Police Commissioner P. Pramod Kumar said.
The gang used to create specific WhatsApp groups with the contact numbers of customers’ friends, relatives, family members and known persons. They would bombard the group with messages, defame and humiliate the customer and try to collect the loan amount. In addition to the three apps, the gang created another app called Neo Rupee.
The gang would collect details of Aadhaar card and PAN card, self employment certificate/bank statement and income proof of the customers. After sanctioning the loan amount, Debashish Das used to take selfies with the customer and secure the latter’s digital signature. Even after the customer repayed the loan, the gang would not close the loan file.
They would charge 22% interest amount on the loan and transfer the file to the collection department whose members would repeatedly call the customer insisting for further repayment of the loan and harass them, the Commissioner said. Three laptops, three mobile phones and SIM cards were seized from the arrested trio.
Janagaon police of Warangal received complaints of harassment by the group and issued FIRs. They traced the accused to Bengaluru and arrested three of them. Hunt is on for the Chinese national and the other accused.
