Commissioner of Police Shankabratha Bagchi addressing the media on the loan app fraud case, in Visakhapatnam on Sunday.
The police here on Sunday arrested nine person allegedly involved in an instant loan app fraud, and seized ₹60 lakh worth cryptocurrency from their possession.
The arrested were identified as G. Sambasiva Rao (32) of Palnadu; K. Sandeep (39) of Guntur; Y.V. Dileep Kumar (25) of Palnadu; Y. Sai Krishna (31) of Guntur; and five others.
Addressing the media, Commissioner of Police Shankabratha Bagchi said a man from the city had borrowed a loan of ₹2,000 through the loan app. Subsequently, he had become the target of the fraudsters, who demanded repayment of the loan in excess of the amount availed and harassed him by sending morphed images of him and his wife to their contacts via WhatsApp.
Following the harassment, the victim’s wife made the payment to the app management. However, unable to cope with the harassment and humiliation, the victim had ended his life by suicide. Based on the complaint filed by his kin, the city police registered a case.
During investigation, the officials had analysed the bank statement of account involved in the case and found that it belonged to a resident of Hailakandi in Assam. Additionally, it was found that the account received numerous small transactions, which appeared to represent loan repayment amounts. Furthermore, funds from the account were subsequently transferred to five bank accounts.
Mr. Bagchi said a comprehensive analysis revealed that individuals perpetrating the instant loan app fraud were leveraging specific company bank accounts to issue instant loans to victims, and employing different accounts to collect repayments. The amounts repaid were then redirected to the original company accounts for subsequent disbursement of additional loans. “This suggests a cyclical pattern in the operation of the fraudulent scheme,” Mr. Bagchi said.
During investigation, Sambasiva Rao reportedly revealed that he had been contacted via Telegram by two Chinese cybercriminals. He had confessed that they lured him into participating in the scam by promising high commissions if he could help open Indian firms and current bank accounts required for the fraud.
Sambasiva Rao had agreed to the proposal and, with the help of his friends Sandeep, Dileep and others, the accused facilitated the opening of multiple bank accounts in the names of unsuspecting individuals under the guise of company accounts, Mr. Bagchi said.
He further said that Sambasiva Rao had managed to provide details of approximately 132 bank accounts to the Chinese fraudsters via various social media apps. These accounts were then used to process transactions related to the fraudulent loan app operations, he added.
The police had recovered cellphones and laptops used in the crime. On verification of their mobile phones, it was found that Sambasiva Rao had 53784 USDT cryptocurrency, Dileep 12628 USDT, Sandeep 1182 USDT in their wallet. The total amount was equivalent to ₹60,43,588 lakh.
Published – April 27, 2025 08:07 pm IST