The Nellore police arrested four persons belonging to a loan app firm on charges of harassing Andhra Pradesh Agriculture Minister Kakani Govardhan Reddy and former Irrigation Minister P. Anil Kumar, demanding repayment of loans advanced to some persons allegedly close to the duo.
Superintendent of Police Ch. Vijaya Rao said two cases had been registered in this connection at Balaji Nagar and at Muthukur. Laptops, mobile phones purportedly used to make repeated calls to the two YSRCP leaders have also been seized. A special team has been formed to probe into the cases, the SP said.
Mr. Govardhan Reddy, after interacting with the people of his Sarvepalli Assembly constituency during the ‘Gadapa Gadapaku Mana Prabhuthvam’ programme on Friday, told the media that more than 75 calls demanding payment of ₹9 lakh taken as loan by some person not known to him were received.
Acting on a complaint made by the Minister’s PA, the IT Core Team made call data record analysis of the calls made to the Minister from different mobile numbers and those numbers were blocked.
An agent of a loan app firm also repeatedly demanded that Mr. Anil Kumar must repay the loan sanctioned to his brother-in-law P. Ashok Kumar. The former Minister suggested that the firm was free to take action against the loanee and he could not be held responsible in any way for the loan of ₹8 lakh advanced by the firm.
The police said that gullible people desperate to avail of loans without much documentation and surety share personal details including contact numbers and photographs with loan app firms without reading the terms and conditions. They end up paying a high rate of interest and hidden charges including processing fees.
Loan seekers face online harassment in form of threatening calls, WhatsApp messages and even calls to friends and family members to shame them. Every week, such firms double the interest rate, and if the borrowers fail to repay, the firm staff send messages to the names in the contact list of the borrower. In many cases, the calls are made from international destinations and difficult to track, said sources in the Police Department.
