HYDERABAD: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Sunday said it has booked a money laundering case in the instant loan app fraud cases registered by the Telangana police so far. ED officials said it has taken up FIRs booked by Hyderabad and Cyberabad police against Chinese nationals and locals who are accused in the cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
“Unauthorised loan apps are avoiding all regulatory agencies. We are looking at a possible transfer abroad of money from the crime proceeds,” said one official.
Sources in ED said that they are collecting details from the investigating officials in 27 FIRs booked by Hyderabad police so far.
ED authorities believe that the instant loan app fraud has huge ramification on where the money would have been laundered abroad. In one case involving Chinese national Zhu Wei and his Indian associates, an investigation by Hyderabad police showed 1.4 crore transactions worth around Rs 21,000 crore was carried out from seven call centres.
Police conducted searches across the country including Hyderabad, Gurugram, Bengaluru and other places on the loan apps’ call centres.
Cops have so far arrested four Chinese nationals. Three of them, Yi Bai, Liang TianTian and Zheu Wei, have been arrested in the past month and booked in the instant loan app case. The fourth, Yah Hao, was arrested in August in connection with running an online gambling racket in which a large number of Indians have lost crores of rupees.
“The accused were not only collecting interest, processing charges but also GST, default charges and penalty,” one official added.
ED officials said they will be grilling 16 accused so far arrested by Hyderabad police.
Investigators said the mobile loan apps collect exorbitant interest rate and when people fail to repay they are harassed, threatened and abused by the recovery wing of these companies.
At least five suicides have been recorded in Telangana linked to instant lending apps in a little more than a month. In all cases the victims killed themselves after they were shamed in front of friends and family for defaulting on loans.
Police booked cases under abetment to suicide, cheating, extortion and IT act sections against. Several victims have deposed before police that the loan apps collect additional charges. Apart from Hyderabad and Cyberabad police, Bengaluru and Chennai police have also begun crackdown over the loan apps.