Loan apps racket: Cops net five who tortured borrowers

The five arrested accused

Exactly 15 days after the state home minister called a meeting with top Maharashtra Cyber Cell officials along with mid-day reporters, taking cognisance of the loan app harassment reportage, the Cyber Cell has busted one module originating from Karnataka. Five accused who have been harassing borrowers by morphing their pictures and sharing the same with the victims' contacts were arrested. The arrested accused includes a supervisor who was on the payroll of the loan app syndicate.

The state cyber cell registered an umbrella case to investigate the entire syndicate last month, following instructions from home minister Dilip Walse Patil. "After thorough investigation, we got the link of one WhatsApp number which belongs to a vegetable seller in Dhule district. The vegetable seller was interrogated and we learned that someone else was using the number as he didn't even have a smartphone," Maharashtra ADG Madhukar Pandey said at a press conference on Monday.

Also read: 21-yr-old from Byculla loses Rs 52K to online loan sharks

State Cyber Cell SP Sanjay Shintre, ADG Madhukar Pandey and cyber IG Yashasvi Yadav

The arrests

SP Sanjay Shintre said that based on an OTP received by the vegetable seller, they traced the main accused who were found running the syndicate to recover loans from borrowers. "Our team was deployed to Dharwad in Karnataka and we carried out raid at a residence of one accused and apprehended him," Pandey said.

The arrested accused, identified as Ahmed Husain, 26, is a Std XII drop-out and worked for the syndicate at a monthly salary of R12,000. Husain confessed to the crime and gave the cops details of his supervisor. "Our teams then reached Uttar Kannada district of Karnataka and arrested the supervisor," Pandey said.

(From left) Maharashtra Cyber Cell SP Sanjay Shintre, ADG Madhukar Pandey, IG Yashasvi Yadav at a press conference on Monday

When the cyber cell team arrested the supervisor, Suhail Sayyed, 24, three other accused - Sayyed Mohammed Athar, 24; Mohammed Kaif Kadari, 22; and Muftiaz Peerzade - managed to escape. "We then took the help of local police and apprehended the three," Pandey added.

Background

Cyber cops found that Sayyed has an MBA degree and was hired by another person who is being investigated to recover money for Happy Loan app. "We are investigating the role of other people who are suspected to be kingpin of the entire syndicate. These accused were found working for a few more apps, but we cannot reveal the names as of yet," said Pandey.

Apart from Sayyed, Athar has done IT course after completing Std XII, Kadari is in second-year of computer science course while Peerzade has completed his BCom degree.

The accused were operating from different locations in Karnataka at a salary of Rs 12,000-Rs 15,000 while Sayed drew a monthly salary of Rs 20,000.

The cops added that all agents were given a target to recover Rs 40,000 every day, for which they needed to make around 100 calls daily. "They used to reach their targets almost everyday, and yet continued to send messages to borrowers. This is a clear case of extortion, and hence we have added relevant sections of IPC apart from the IT Act," said Shintre.

Probe findings

Cyber cops have also found verbiage from the cell phones of the accused. "It was a proper script where everything is narrated which includes the abusive and threatening messages sent to the loan borrowers. They were also told how to start the conversation by threatening the borrowers with sending their morphed photos to their relatives," an officer said.

According to sources, the cyber cell has identified a few more people who are suspected to have links with Happy Loans from Gujarat. "It appears that the address of the app is fake and the real owners of the app are somewhere else. We will get more clarity after interrogating these accused and properly scanning their mobile phones," the officer added.

The officials have seized 5 mobile phones and 5 SIM cards from these accused. "We are taking help from cyber forensic experts to get further details in the case," said Yadav.

China link

After preliminary investigation, cyber cops suspect the role of Chinese nationals.

According to cyber cell, the amount paid by the loan borrowers have gone to different UPI accounts which have been thoroughly examined.

"These payments were to different accounts through UPI and we suspect that money has gone to the real owners via differ routes who are suspected to be in China," An officer privy to the investigation said.

"The route of this entire syndicate is taking us to China, but as of now the investigation is at a very premature stage," said an officer, on the condition of anonymity.

Cyber cell writes to RBI again

The cyber cell has again written to the Reserve Bank of India to make an amendment while granting permission to NBFCs as most of them are violating rules, allowing private loan apps to give loans on digital platforms without having permission from the RBI. "Recently RBI has cancelled licences of 5 NBFCs," an officer said.

The cyber cell has registered one FIR after identifying 27 victims in Mumbai who have given complaints on their website and one victim from Mulund who came forward to register an FIR. "The victim took a Rs 8,000 loan and paid R96,000, and yet his photos were morphed and shared with his relatives. They even sent messages saying that the victim was accused in a rape case of a minor girl," Shintre added.

The cyber cell has also identified five states from where these calls are being made - Rajasthan, Delhi, West Bengal, Bihar and Karnataka. Officers believe that the Karnataka syndicate is almost neutralised with the arrest of these arrests.

Rs 20k
Monthly salary of supervisor of the busted module