HYDERABAD: Though 50 cases have been registered against money lending applications (apps) and Telangana police requested Google to remove 113 apps from its PlayStore, the Internet search giant is yet to remove most and has axed only a handful of apps.
Hyderabad police have registered 29 cases, Cyberabad 10, Warangal seven and Rachakonda four cases based on complaints lodged by harassed victims of money lending apps.
As of now, 50 cases have been registered in the three city commissionerates and Warangal commissionerate against instant money finance apps and police identified over 80 apps linked to these cases.
Cops are going on a case-by-case basis and so far Hyderabad police had identified 42 apps linked to complaints they have received. Similarly, Rachakonda police had identified 18 apps linked to cases being investigated by them, while Cyberabad police identified 25 apps linked to their 10 cases.
Cops of the three commissonerates have already written to Google to remove the money lending apps from PlayStore, citing the cases registered here.
“We have initially written to Google to remove three apps and those have been removed from PlayStore. Subsequently, we wrote to the search engine asking it to remove 113 more apps and some of them have already been removed. There are about 350 money lending apps we have identified and 113 of them are on PlayStore. Remaining are file links shared to victims by the fraudsters,” Cyberabad inspector T Sanjay Kumar said.
Hyderabad police have written to Google asking the IT giant to remove 66 money lending apps, Rachakonda police have also requested for removal of similar apps and they too were expecting a positive response.
So far, three Chinese nationals have been arrested by cops of the three police commissionerates in relation to money lending app cases. Warangal police also named a Chinese national, Erik Penglu, as an accused in a money lending app case registered with them, but he is absconding.