PremiumThe case is based on at least 18 FIRs filed by the Bengaluru Police cyber crime station against numerous entities/persons in connection with their involvement in extortion and harassment of people who had availed small amount of loans through these mobile apps
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NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday said it was conducting raids at Bengaluru premises of online payment gateways such as Razorpay, Paytm and Cashfree, as part of an ongoing probe against “illegal" instant smartphone-based loans “controlled" by Chinese persons.
The searches were launched on Friday across six premises in Bengaluru, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said in a statement, adding that an amount of ₹17 crore was seized which was kept “in merchant IDs and bank accounts of these Chinese persons-controlled entities" during the raids.
During preliminary enquiries, the central probe agency found that these entities were controlled and operated by Chinese persons. The modus operandi of these entities is that they used forged documents of Indians and made them dummy directors of the entities and generated proceeds of crime, the ED said.
The case is based on 18 FIRs registered by Bengaluru Police’s cyber crime station against numerous entities/persons in connection with their involvement in extortion and harassment of people who had availed small loans through the mobile apps being run by the entities/persons.
“During the search operation, it is noticed that the said entities were generating proceeds of crime through various Merchant IDs/Accounts held with Payment Gateways/banks and they are also not operating from the addresses given on the MCA website/registered address and having fake addresses," the ED added.