EOW arrests CA from Delhi in loan app case

Bhubaneswar: The economic offences wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch arrested a chartered accountant from New Delhi on Tuesday on charges of duping several people in Odisha of crores of rupees by using a dubious loan app, called Kredit Gold, which is suspected to be run by a group of Chinese nationals. The accused was identified as Neerav Gupta of Gurgaon.
According to the EOW, Gupta opened some shell companies and sold them to the Chinese nationals for their easy cash transactions for operation of the illegal loan app. “We have information that the chartered accountant received Rs 30 lakh from the Chinese nationals to facilitate their illegal loan business through several apps, including Kredit Gold. The accused was working for the Chinese people having regular contacts with them and was responsible for lending/recovery of the loan amount in India. He is also wanted by different law enforcement agencies of India,” EOW’s deputy inspector general J N Pankaj said.
The bureau of immigration recently issued a lookout circular against three Chinese nationals for illegally operating Kredit Gold loan app in the country. Shakti Prasad Dash, a resident of Bhubaneswar, recently downloaded the app and applied for a loan of Rs 9,000. He was instantly granted the loan and money was credited to his account.
Within four days of receiving the money, Dash started getting messages to repay Rs 15,627. He received abusive calls and threat messages from different mobile numbers, Pankaj said.
When Dash downloaded the loan app, the fraudsters got access to his contacts and started sending them obscene messages and photographs by branding him a rapist. Their intention was to pressurise and humiliate Dash before his acquaintances so that he would agree to pay the extortion money.
EOW said many such illegal loan apps are still operational. Though the EOW requested Google to remove the fraud Apps from its Play Store, they have not yet complied with the request.
“The EOW plans to initiate legal action against Google if the latter does not respond in a positive way,” Pankaj said.