Another accused arrested by EOW in fake loan app scam

Bhubaneswar, May 15: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has arrested another accused in the illegal loan app case. The investigating agency has arrested Tarun Dudeja from Bhubaneswar. Earlier the EOW had arrested Mohd Javed Saifi, proprietor of IWT India for allegedly cheating people through a fake loan mobile app. Earlier, in this case, an amount of Rs 6.57 crore was frozen from four accounts of Mahagram Payments Pvt Ltd. EOW had received a series of complaints from victims and the Reserve Bank of India relating to the illegal functioning of loan apps that are not registered as NBFC under Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Act. As many as 41 postpaid SIM cards in the name of various other persons were seized from Dudeja. “He along with Javed used to lure the victims to open bank accounts and take SIM cards using their names. These accounts were later be used to channelize the money collected through illegal loan apps,” said a police official. During the investigation, it is ascertained that these fake loan apps once downloaded, small amounts ranging from Rs 3000-5000 is credited through the link or through UPI to the customer’s bank account. Once the amount is credited to the customer’s bank account, within a week the customer is asked to repay the amount along with an excessive rate of interest. On denial to pay the high rate of interest, the concerned customer is humiliated in many ways. Obscene messages and indecent pictures along with abusive texts are sent to his whatsapp number and as well as to his contact list.