Online loan providers harass AP minister's PA; four arrested

AMARAVATI: Harassment in the name of online loans continues to be a menace despite the cyber-crime police taking a series of deterrent measures. Right from the common man to celebrities, no one is being spared from the nuisance created by online loan vendors.

In a shocking turn of events, Andhra Pradesh Agriculture Minister Kakani Govardhan Reddy's personal assistant has become the latest casualty to this. It all started when the minister received a call from one of the online loan providers. It was answered by his PA Sankar.

To his shock, Shankar was not only abused but was even threatened by the loan providers to repay the loan he had received. Unable to bear the harassment, Shankar paid Rs 25,000 and later complained to the district Superintendent of Police Vijaya Rao.

As part of their investigation, the police went to Chennai where they collected evidence from the Coleman firm before arresting the manager Mamidipudi Guru Prasad and several others. A few laptops and mobiles were seized.

As the details emerged, it is learnt that an old man named Ashok Kumar had secured a loan of over Rs 8 lakhs from Full Tran India Private Limited Company in Ramalingapuram, Nellore, and defaulted on its repayment. The loan app administrators, as part of their typical arm-twisting measures, began calling and threatening those who are enlisted as contacts on Ashok's mobile phone.

Meanwhile, former irrigation minister Anil Kumar Yadav too faced harassment from the loan providers in the same case. An audio conversation between the Nellore MLA and loan recovery agents is currently going viral. In the audio clipping, two women, claiming to be from a local bank, were heard insisting on the MLA to cough up the loan money, which, they claim, was secured by one Ashok Kumar. Despite repeated denials by Anil Kumar Yadav that he had no relation with the person in question, the callers kept demanding the ex-minister to pay up the money.

Interestingly, the loan providers used the same name (Ashok Kumar) to harass the personal assistant of Minister Kakani Govardhan Reddy.

In a similar incident, the harassment of online app loan providers led to the suicide of a teenager in NTR district. Jasti Harita Varshini (17) was deeply hurt after being harassed by the recovery agents in Nandigama. She left a suicide letter and hung herself to death in the kitchen.

Varshini's father was said to have taken a loan against a bank credit card. The recovery agents reportedly abused to pay off the debt taken by her father. Unable to clear the debt due to a distressing financial condition, the teenager died by suicide.