After Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil took a serious note of mid-day’s series of reports on the fraudulent practices and bullying of customers by digital lending firms, city police chief Sanjay Pandey has ordered that all loan app harassment cases be transferred to Mumbai Cyber Cell. So far, 21 cases, including the suicide of a Malad man allegedly due to harassment by recovery  agents, have been handed over to the Cyber Cell.

While the Cyber Cell takes up cases of digital frauds where the amount is high and a serious investigation is required, the app loan cases were handled by the local police as the amounts were just in the thousands. “Because the loan amounts were very low, the local cops didn’t act on them, which led to the further spread of the loan app cases and now the numbers are unimaginable,” a source from the state home ministry said.