Mumbai Police bust online instant loan racket, 14 held

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Mumbai Police's cyber crime cell arrested 14 people who were part of a racket involved in harassing people through mobile phone applications offering instant loans, the police said Friday.

In a press conference, Joint Commissioner (crime) Suhas Warke said, the officials have frozen around 350 bank accounts, comprising Rs 14 crore, and crypto currency worth 2.17 lakh US dollars.

Initially, a case was registered in the matter when a complaint was filed by a victim in May this year and following a probe, the arrests were made in the last couple of weeks, he said.

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The official added, while applying for instant loans on mobile phone applications, all the personal data of the applicants would go to the company of the accused persons, which they then used for harassing people who failed to repay loans.

The accused allegedly morphed obscene images of the victims who failed to repay loans or defaulted on the payment of interest and circulated the same to their friends and family members, the official said.

The accused were nabbed from Bengaluru (Karnataka), Andhra Pradesh, Gurgaon, Mumbai and Uttarakhand, he said, adding that further probe is underway.

(with PTI inputs)