Harassment by loan app firm claims another life in Telangana

Another man allegedlydied by suicide in Telangana, upset over being 'harassed' byan online money lender from whom he had taken a loan and wasunable to repay it, police said on Saturday.

With this death, the total number of suicides due toharassment by instant app-based lenders have gone up to six inthe state.

Pavan Kalyan Reddy (24) of Galipalli village in RajannaSircilla district, had allegedly taken loan from an onlinemoney lending portal and failed to repay the amount within thestipulated time, District Police Superintendent B K RahulHegde said.

When Reddy declined to answer repeated calls from thetelecallers of the company, they called his cousin and askedhim to remind the victim to pay the monthly instalment, Hegdetold PTI.

Depressed over the harassment meted out to him by thecompany as he was unable to repay the loan, Reddy allegedlyended his life on Friday, he said.

The senior police official advised the public not toavail loans from such unauthorised apps.

According to police, instant loan apps offered loans toindividuals and levied huge interest and processing chargesamong others.

They also resorted to systematic abusing, harassing,threatening of the defaulters through the call centres.

Cases have been registered in various police stations inthe state based on several complaints that such firmsallegedly obtained sensitive data such as contacts,photographs from the mobile phones of the customers and usingthem to defame or blackmail to get the loan repayment.