The fraudster then asked the senior citizen to use another bank account. When he told him that he only had one bank account, the fraudster cut the call.A 38-year-old man in Malad (east) died by suicide Wednesday after he was allegedly harassed by cyber fraudsters who sent his morphed nude photos with obscene messages to his friends and colleagues saying that he was yet to repay an online loan, said the police.
The deceased was a sales executive by profession and he ended his life when he was alone in his house at Kurar village around 11 am, said the police. A first information report (FIR) for suicide abetment has been registered against unidentified accused at the Kurar police station based on the complaint of the man’s elder brother.
The accused harassed the deceased by calling him around 50 times from various mobile numbers asking him to repay a loan, which he claimed he never took, the man’s brother told The Indian Express.
According to the brother, the man on April 23 told him about the alleged harassment by a few people in the name of loan repayment. The brother returned to Malad along with his parents and wife from their native village Kudal in Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg district to support the sales executive and his wife.
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The brother said that on April 27, they went to the Kurar police station and complained. They were given an acknowledgement (a copy is with The Indian Express) of their complaint but no first information report (FIR) or non-cognisable offence was registered by the police, he said and added that the harassment by the fraudsters continued even after the police complaint.
“My brother was being harassed since last month by these agents who claimed that he had taken a loan from them through a mobile app called ‘Hello cash’. They called him 50 times from five different numbers and sent him obscene messages. He was tense and feeling insulted,” said the brother.
“The accused sent morphed nude photographs of my brother to his colleagues, including women. I told him that we would sort it out. He earned Rs 25,000 a month and the loan, which he claimed he never took, would be worth only a few thousand rupees. I told him that we would return it but he was feeling very ashamed and embarrassed. The accused made phone calls to people from his contact list and many people in our area also received derogatory messages about him,” said the brother.
“Neither was an FIR registered nor did the harassment stop. The police took it lightly as we are poor people. All I want to say now is what happened to our family should not happen to anyone else. The police should take strict action now and crack down on these blackmailers,” he added.
Harassment by cyber fraudsters in the name of online loans have been on the rise of late. Last month, the government railway police in Andheri arrested a 19-year-old man from Karnataka for allegedly sending morphed pornographic videos of a woman to her distant relative because she failed to repay a loan of Rs 9,000.
A 24-year-old woman was sexually harassed by cyber-fraudsters who called her from 25 different mobile numbers and threatened to defame her if she does not pay up a loan, which she never took, and extorted Rs 4.5 lakh from her. An FIR was registered by the Charkop police station in Kandivali (West) on April 14.
The Bandra police registered an FIR against unknown cyber fraudsters for allegedly circulating a morphed nude photo of a 23-year-old man among his friends and relatives after he failed to repay loans worth Rs 6,000 taken through mobile applications.
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