The harassment at the hands of recovery agents, hired by companies offering instant loans via mobile apps, seems to have become unstoppable. After a series of mid-day reports, many victims have approached this paper to share their ordeal. While a woman has been shamed in front of her family, relatives and friends, a man lost his job at a multinational firm, while there are some who are being hounded by the agents even though they repaid the loan.
 
MiD-Day has in various reports highlighted the menace of lending via mobile app-based platforms. Youngsters, mostly college dropouts, have been hired by these companies to go after people defaulting on repayments. However, as more victims emerge, it shows that innocent people are being harassed irrespective of the status of their loan. A person had recently even taken his own life following incessant harassment by loan recovery agents.

‘Repaid, but no respite’

Anilkumar Rajbhar, 41, had a wedding at home in May and was in need of Rs 50,000. He was searching the Internet for a finance company when he stumbled upon Rupee Tiger. “I had borrowed Rs 3 lakh from another app-based lender and my experience so far was good. I filled up my information in the Rupee Tiger app after which I was approved for a loan of Rs 6,000. But I needed a bigger amount, so I stopped entering more details. However, I still received Rs 3,300 in my account on April 19. I got a call by company officials on April 23, asking to pay Rs 6,000, and I immediately returned the amount on the UPI ID mentioned in the app,” he recalls.