Loan app scam: 2 Chinese nationals arrested

Chennai, Jan 03: Two Chinese and as many Indian nationals have been arrested for allegedly operating instant loan apps, the police said on Saturday.

Investigation, based on a complaint in the city, revealed the prime accused to be operating from China, the police said.

The two Indians had been operating the call centre from Bengaluru and had employed over 100 people to provide quick online loans, they said.

Each employee had been asked to sanction instant loans to at least 10 people in a week and threatened of being sacked if they failed to do so, said the police.

The Chinese nationals ran the call centre with the assistance of the two Indians.

All of them were arrested in Bengaluru on December 31, 2020, and January 1, 2021, according to Chennai senior police official Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal.

The arrest was made following Ganesan's complaint stating that he was subjected to agony, abuse, threats and harassment by the online loan app firms over repayment with higher rate of interest, theCommissioner said in a press release.

It was also revealed that another Chinese national was the head of the call centre and he operated from China, the release said.
"We are investigating whether the Chinese are running loan apps targeting only India," Mr Aggarwal further said.

Of late, there have been many instances of app-based money-lenders harassing borrowers over repayment, which led to suicides.