Taking a serious account of various mobile apps that offer instant loans the Hyderabad police conducted a multi-city crackdown and arrested 17 people. The police conducted raids in Hyderabad and Gurugram. Based on complaints the Hyderabad and Cyberabad police have registered 16 and 7 cases, respectively, against such companies.

This comes after three people allegedly committed suicide due to harassment by the employees of online loan apps last week. A jobless techie and an agriculture extension officer were among those who ended their lives.

As per reports, the Hyderabad Police has frozen 75 bank accounts that hold Rs 423 crore in connection with a multi-crore money lending scam. These money lenders reportedly charged victims up to 35 percent interest.

At least 60 such loan apps available on Google Play Store were not registered or recognized by the Reserve Bank of India as an NBFC, this makes their operation illegal, the police said.

Police reportedly raided two locations in Gurugram and three locations in Hyderabad, which were running organized tele caller centers. These call centers were being used to persuade, harass, and intimidate the loan defaulters. Police seized nearly 700 laptops, servers, computer systems, among other gadgets. Further investigation to find out the trail of financial transactions, funding, technology base is underway.

Meanwhile, the Cyberabad police are carrying out independent investigations and have arrested seven. 

RBI on Wednesday, issued a statement cautioning individuals and small businesses against falling prey to the growing number of unauthorized digital lending platforms/Mobile Apps.