Senior police officers of Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda Commissionerates dealing with instant loan app frauds on Friday held a meeting with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) appointed working group for devising modalities to regulate the space of digital money lending in the country.
During the virtual meeting, the police officers apprised the RBI officials on the entire situation arising out of the operation of unscrupulous money lending apps and their predatory approach towards public in lending and recovering the loans.
They suggested to the panel devise guidelines to streamline digital lending by authorised NBFCs using various platforms. "Public must be able to identify the genuine and legally authorised money lending agencies and their lending process should be transparent and adherent to all the legal provisions," they said.
The police suggested that the banks whose accounts are being used for money transactions by these fraudulent money lending apps must have a stringent mechanism for KYC and also a periodical review of the activities to alert the law enforcement agencies of any suspicious transactions.
Cyberabad Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar, IG, Intelligence, Rajesh Kumar, Hyderabad CCS Joint Commissioner of Police Avinash Mohanty, Shamshabad Deputy Commissioner of Police N Prakash Reddy, Traffic DCP SM Vijay Kumar, Rachakonda Cyber Crimes ACP Harinath and Cybercrime Inspector Sanjay Kumar participated in the meeting.
More than 30 accused including four Chinese nationals have been arrested by Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda police since December 2020. The crackdown began after at least five people committed suicide due to harassment by lending apps.
The Telangana High Court on Thursday directed police to ensure that all illegal instant loan apps are removed from Play Stores and take firm action against the companies and people behind these apps.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice Hima Kohli directed the state government and police chief to leave no stone unturned in nabbing the criminals running the loan scam.
The court gave the direction to police based on a public interest litigation.