Mumbai: Malad man lodges complaint after loan sharks harass him with morphed obscene pictures

Mumbai: A 25-year-old Malad resident became a victim of online loan fraud and has lodged a complaint against loan sharks after facing continued harassment. 

The victim had taken a loan of Rs 8,900 from a loan app after which the loan recovery agents harassed the victim to repay the loan and also sent him his morphed obscene photograph and threatened to share the same with those in his contact list. The victim has shared a list of four recovery persons with the police in his complaint.

Loan sharks threaten the victim

According to the Kurar police, the complainant is a resident of Kurar Village in Malad and works in a private company. On January 25, the victim was in urgent need of Rs 15000 and had downloaded a loan app on his phone. The victim then shared his Pan card, Aadhar card, and bank details on the app and also uploaded his photograph to complete the verification process. On January 29, the victim received Rs 8900 in four different transactions in his bank account from the loan app.

On Friday, the victim received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number, asking the victim to pay the loan amount. The victim responded by saying that he would pay the money in a fortnight. The loan recovery person then shared details of the contacts of the victim's friends and relatives. The victim later received his obscene edited photograph from another WhatsApp number. This time the recovery person also called the victim and threatened to share the photograph and defame him if he would not pay the money.

Harassed man approaches the police

The recovery person also shared an edited photograph of the victim with one of his friends and relatives and continued to threaten the victim to pay the money. Harassed by this, the victim approached the police and got a complaint lodged in the matter. 

The police have registered a case under sections 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 500 (defamation), 504 (intentional insult) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 66D (punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resource) and 67 (Punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act.