Chinese among 4 held in insta loan app bust

Hyderabad: Cyberabad police on Friday, as part of its crackdown on illegal app-based instant microloan lending companies, arrested four persons including a Chinese national. The police raided a call centre in Hyderabad named 'Cubevo Technology Private Limited,' whose head office, 'Skyline Innovations Technologies India Private Limited' is located in Delhi.

The police said they have so far identified two call centres each in Gurgaon and Hyderabad that are involved in illegal app-based loan lending. A bank account with Rs 2 crore has been seized. The accused have been identified as Yi Bai alias Dennis, who hails from Jiangxi in Shanghai, Satyapal Khyalia of Delhi, Hyderabad-based Aniriddh Malhotra and Murathoti Richie Hemanth Seth. The directors of the company Zixia Zhang, another Chinese national, and Umapati alias Ajay are absconding.

Cyberabad Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar said Zixia Zhang and Umapati have registered the company in Gurgaon and developed 11 instant loan applications. "While Zhang is the mastermind, Umapati operates the bank accounts related to all the companies. Together they started Digi Peergo Tech Private Limited in December 2019 and incorporated Skyline Innovation technology India Private Limited with the help of a Singapore-based company named Xikai Holding PTE Limited the same month. They established call centres across the country and hired tele-callers for the collection of loan amounts. Yi Bai alias Dennis is the chief operating officer (COO) of Xikai Holding PTE Limited. He had come to India in February 2020 on a business visa and stayed back as the business development manager of Skyline. Along with Satyapal, he has been setting up call centres across India," he added.

The 11 instant loan apps the company operates are Loan Gram, Cash Train, Cash Bus, AAA Cash, Super Cash, Mint Cash, Happy Cash, Loan Card, Repay One, Money Box and Monkey box. The accused offered loans to individuals through these apps and collected huge repayments, which include interest, processing charges, GST, default charges, and even penalty. Upon failure to repay, the defaulters are subjected to abuse, harassment, and face threats of dire consequences through executives employed at the call centres. The apps once installed by the users would collect their ID proofs, PAN card, KYC documents, and bank account details. The genuineness of the documents gets checked and small amounts in the form of loans are credited into the customers bank accounts after debiting the processing charges and GST i.e., 25-30 per cent in advance.

Earlier, the police commissionerates of Hyderabad and Cyberabad on December 22 arrested 17 people in raids conducted in Hyderabad and Gurugram. The applications developed by these companies were involved in 11 different cases registered in Cyberabad, Hyderabad and Rachakonda police commissionerates. The police seized Rs 2 crore in bank accounts, two laptops and four mobile phones.