6 ‘recovery agents’ of online loan app arrested for harassment, extortion

Mumbai: The city crime branch has arrested a gang of six “recovery agents” linked to an online loan app for allegedly harassing, threatening and extorting money from a bank employee and his family over repayment of digital loans.

During the course of their investigation, Crime Branch Unit 2 said they came across several other people who fell victim to this gang.

The arrested recovery agents have been identified as Pavesh Gorivle (28), Pravin Jadhav (49), Pravin Thorat (28), Sudesh Waghmare (27), Ravi Jaiswal (28) and Valmiki Gupta (21). The accused have been booked under sections for threatening, extortion, outraging the modesty of a woman, organised act and criminal intimidation.

All six were produced before a court, which remanded them to police custody. Defence advocates Hitesh Patel and Arun Gupta argued the accused were innocent as they are recovery agents and the police had falsely framed them at the behest of larger banks so that “smaller lenders for which the accused worked would shut down”.

The case came to light after the Marol-based complainant, Akshay Omprakash (37), employed with a private bank, said he took a loan through an online app called ‘Ram Fincorp Loan’. He alleged that after applying for the Rs 29,000 loan, only Rs 23,150 was credited into his account. The complainant later repaid Rs 34,750, including the interest, through a payment link shared by the app operators.

Police said while making the payment, the complainant unknowingly granted access to his phone data through an APK file. This allegedly allowed the accused to gain access to his contacts, Aadhaar card, PAN details, photographs and bank documents stored on the mobile phone.

Thereafter, the complainant allegedly began receiving repeated calls from various online loan app operators demanding further payments. The accused allegedly threatened him and his family, abused his wife in obscene language and even threatened sexual assault. Police said the callers also contacted the complainant’s relatives, friends and office colleagues, allegedly defaming him and pressuring others not to employ him.

The complainant alleged that despite already paying nearly Rs 17.6 lakh towards various online loans and interest, the apps continued to show outstanding dues of over Rs 10 lakh, and the threatening calls and messages continued. The police said the accused allegedly contacted the complainant repeatedly over the phone and some of them also visited his residence to intimidate him.

Police said the modus operandi of the gang was to harass “defaulters”, compelling them to take another loan to settle the earlier loan at heavy interest rates. Meanwhile, they would harass the victim, access his mobile phone, extract all data including contact numbers of relatives, colleagues, photos and bank details, and then defame them by sending their morphed photographs and even threaten sexual assault. Victims said even after paying heavy interest and clearing all loans, the apps continued to show an outstanding balance.