A man from Saidabad approached police on Saturday night alleging harassment, public shaming and threatening by an app-based instant loan provider
The victim, Sai Aravind Dauluri, a resident of Singareni Colony in Saidabad, told the police that he had borrowed ₹ 3,500 from ‘My Bank’ app in the month of November and the company had disbursed ₹ 2,600 after deducting processing fees and interest.
As he repaid the loan amount within a week, the company unlocked more features for him and he borrowed additional ₹ 30,000 for which he was asked to repay ₹ 55,000 within a period of one week.
When he failed to repay the amount on time, My Bank’s customer care executive called and started threatening him that they would inform about his default to his friends and family members, Saidabad sub-inspector P. Madhava Rao said.
“Though Aravind requested them to give him two days for repayment, My Bank customer care executives phoned him more than 400 times and threatened to publicly shame and call up his contacts,” he said.
The app company employees started calling up all his contacts informing them about it on Aravind failing to return their money, Mr. Rao said.
“They also created at least 10 WhatsApp groups, added the victim’s contacts in it and started sharing his and mother’s morphed photographs to bring pressure on him,” the officer said, adding that the customer care executives publicly humiliated Aravind by using abusive language.
Based on a complaint, a case under Section 384, 420, 504,506 of Indian Penal Code and Section 3 and 13 of Andhra Pradesh (Telangana Area) Money Lending Act against My Bank and launched a probe.
The victim stated the app company levied a fine of ₹ 3,000 per day, which was illegal and the payment happened through Razorpay, an online payment gateway.
Meanwhile Rachakonda Cyber Crime ACP S Harinath told The Hindu that so far they have received over 50 complaints against such instant loan mobile applications.
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