Hyderabad Cyber Crime police has apprehended at least eight people in the app-based instant loans case.
The people who were picked up from New Delhi and Hyderabad appeared to be the key persons in the loan racket, a senior police officer associated with the investigation of the case said.
With close to a dozen heads of these companies under police radar, the sleuths are hopeful of getting more insight into the manner in which they operate. Simultaneously, the City police questioned the telecallers about their role in the app-based instant finance companies.
The alleged harassment and public humiliation by the app-based money lenders have resulted in the death of at least three people in Telangana recently.
“Our teams visited a call centre in Gurugram, which employs more than 400 people, and questioned the top heads before they were apprehended. The suspects are being brought to the city,” the officer said. In Hyderabad alone, the teams conducted raids on two call centres belonging to the app-based micro finance companies located in Begumpet and Punjagutta, which has at least 700 executives.
Confirming that a few executive level leaders of these companies working in Hyderabad were also taken into custody for questioning, the senior officer declined to share more details.
Police of the three commissionerates -- Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda, wrote to Alphabet Inc., which owns Google and online payment gateway link-ups to provide technical details, including IP addresses, bank account details, and domain of the apps in question.
Meanwhile, Cyberabad Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crimes) Rohini Priyadarshini said they were still waiting for a response from Google and other companies.
Denying the reports that four people involved in the online loan racket were taken into custody by Cyberabad police, she said that their teams have conducted searches at a few companies and summons notices were served.
“We have not apprehended anyone nor being questioned at present,” she confirmed.
