Mumbai: After giving in thrice to loan app fraudsters, a 39-year-old advertising executive registered a case at Meghwadi police station on Saturday against unknown persons for harassing him over loans that were given to him without his will.
The complainant had paid double the amount of loan deposited in his account by the fraudsters after being threatened with dire consequences if he did not pay up. However, after the third instance when the man’s relatives and friends received a message with a morphed obscene photograph accusing him of raping a 15-year-old, the man gathered the courage to report the same to the police.
The complainant, a resident of Jogeshwari, said in his statement that on May 22, he had applied for a loan from the ‘Honey loan app’ for ₹3,300. He had repaid it with interest but a day later a sum of ₹4,400 was deposited in his account.
On asking the loan app agents why was he given the money, the agents did not reply and threatened him to pay ₹8,000. The man paid the amount but a day later again ₹5,500 was deposited in his account and was asked to repay ₹10,000. On repaying that, he received ₹6,600 and was told to repay ₹12,000 which he did.
According to the victim, the harassment did not stop there and on Friday, all his contacts, including his family, friends and colleagues, received the message claiming that he was a rapist and the police were on the look out for him. The victim who could not take it any more then decided to approach the police and file an FIR against the loan app agents.
“We have registered a case and are tracing the accused through their WhatsApp numbers,” said a police officer from Meghwadi police station.
The officers said that the victim told them that he had been receiving threatening and blackmail calls from seven mobile numbers from agents who extorted money from him.