Yet another man has committed suicide at Petbasheerabad in Hyderabad after falling prey to fraudulent instant loan apps. The police said G. Chandra Mohan had taken around Rs 1 lakh from various instant micro loan apps in the past few months. Mohan’s family members claimed that he had already cleared the principal amounts, but was being harassed to pay more in the form of late payment fees, compound interest, and other charges.
He worked as a supervisor in a vegetable storage unit in the area. The police found that Mohan had availed loans from several micro loan apps like Cash Map, Red Crop, and Three Bit. He had also received threatening phone calls around 15 days before his death. After receiving the threats, the family had approached the Rachakonda police and had even filed a formal complaint against the harassment, but it was of no use. Five people have died by suicide in Siddipet and Hyderabad because of harassment by loan app companies.
The police have registered several cases and arrested some persons in connection with the racket.
In Telangana, the police have booked over 50 cases after complaints of harassment by defaulters. After a few deaths were reported, the police swung into action and have arrested 29 people so far, including three Chinese nationals, for operating instant loan apps that do not have any approval from the Reserve Bank of India. The Telangana police have also written to Google to take down 158 money lending applications it had identified from Google Play Store.
