Gurugram: 9 members of loan app firm arrested for harassing and threatening victims

GURUGRAM: Nine members of a loan app firm who harassed people not repaying loans and threatened to send their morphed explicit images to others have been arrested by the Gurugram police's Cybercrime Cell, an official said on Thursday.

The gang offered loans via app 'FINSARA' and subsequently threatened to send morphed, explicit pictures of defaulters to their contacts.

The police said a woman lodged a complaint that she had taken a loan of Rs 3,000 through the app. When she failed to repay, she not only started receiving messages for the money, but the firm's personnel also started harassing her by uploading her dirty posts on Facebook and repeatedly posting objectionable photos on WhatsApp. They threatened to send the photos to her family members if she did not repay the money.

During interrogation, the accused revealed the names of app manager and recovery agents who work in giving loans to the people through the loan app.

"To recover the loan from people who do not repay the loan, they hired people who used to recover money by morphing the victim's photo and threatening to send it to social media platforms and their family members if the loan is not returned. For this, team leaders get Rs 25,000 per month and recovery agents get Rs 14,000 per month," ACP, Cyber Crime, Priyanshu Diwan, said.

Eight mobile phones and a SIM box have been recovered from the possession of the accused, police said.

Raj Kumar Varier, an Independent Lawyer has emailed to punjabnewsexpress.com following text. A part of it is produced here.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court, through its order dated 9th September 2024, quashed all FIRs filed against the individuals in question. The Court observed that the disputes between the parties had been amicably resolved and were private in nature, with no broader societal impact. In particular:

1. Paragraph 8 of the order emphasizes the propriety of quashing proceedings under Section 482 of the CrPC, given the educational backgrounds, good reputations, and lack of criminal history of the individuals involved.
2. Paragraph 10 explicitly quashes the FIR and all subsequent proceedings arising from it.

We have accordingly removed the names of accused persons from the story sent by IANS.