The probe into app-based instant loan companies’ harassment of borrowers widened with the Hyderabad police roping in financial experts and data analysts to pour into voluminous data pertaining to 1.40 crore loan transactions involving nearly ₹21,000 crore, apart from cryptocurrency.
Experts have been mandated to follow the money trail and zero in on the ultimate recipients. The investigators, who were initially shocked by the volume of money involved in the fraud, started examining the leverage effect of these 1.40 crore financial transactions as most of them were highly leveraged.
The financial gearing is so humongous that one entry had given rise to geometric progression of step down transactions, said Hyderabad Additional Commissioner of Police (Crimes and SIT) Shikha Goel.
“We have taken financial experts and data analysts on board who can help us unravel the huge number,” she said, adding that they are using certain financial softwares to decode the huge number.
She said that it is too early to say if these transactions were meant only for loan disbursement, repayment or there are any other reasons, including merchants or money circulation.
“The volume of the amount provided by the Razorpay gateway pertaining to four companies may not be the small loans which people have taken, there may be other multi-circulation,” Ms.Goel said.
Now, the investigators have to study if multiple transactions were happening at the same time and if the same money was moving. “Each of this gets recorded as a different transaction. But, the actual amount involved in the fraud will come out once we remove the duplication, and follow the money trail,” the officer said, adding that the amount might be higher or much lesser.
The 1.40 crore transactions happened over payment gateways and bank accounts linked to the accused companies and a large number of international transactions also happened through bitcoins, Ms.Goel said, adding that the bulk of transactions have taken place over the last six months.
The officers are also probing whether there were any hawala transactions. At least five people have committed suicide in the State over online loan harassment.
