HYDERABAD: A law student lodged a complaint with Saidabad police alleging that organisers of the money lending app have been harassing him by sharing morphed photos of him and his mother, branding them as cheats after he was unable to repay the borrowed amount within the stipulated time.
The money lending app organisers charged Rs 24,000 interest in one week’s time on the principal amount of Rs 30,000 and levied Rs 3,000 per day penalty for delay.
According to police, D Sai Aravind, a law student from Singareni Colony in Saidabad, initially borrowed Rs 3,500 loan from the money lending app. “After collecting details like Aadhar, PAN, bank account, email, social media accounts and phone numbers of family and friends, the app sanctioned Rs 3,500 with a condition to repay in one week. However, the app organisers only transferred Rs 2,600 to Aravind and after he repaid Rs 3,500 in one week they unlocked few more applications for him in the app, enabling him to borrow more,” Saidabad CI K Srinivas said.
Second time, Aravind opted for Rs 55,000 loan and the app organisers transferred him Rs 30,000, with a condition to pay Rs 55,000 in one week.
“He was unable to repay in one week and sought two days time. But the representatives of the app did not agree to give additional time and started blackmailing him. They started sending morphed photos of him and his mother terming them as cheats, to the people in his phone contacts list. They also used to call 300 to 400 times a day and abuse him. After the app organisers imposed a penalty of Rs 3,000 per day for delayed payment, Aravind lodged a complaint with us,” the inspector said.
Aravid also told police that the accused have created 10 WhatsApp groups with people in his contacts list.A case was registered under sections 384, 420, 504, 506 of the IPC and section 3 and 13 of the Telangana Money Lenders Act.