A man allegedly died by suicide in Hyderabad on July 19 after being harassed for repayment of borrowed money by the organisers of online an loan app. The 30 year-old Sudhakar’s body was found on the tracks near a railway station, the police said. During the course of the investigation, it was found that the man, who was working at a fire station in Hyderabad, had taken loans from the instant loan apps, but was unable to repay them due to some financial problems, the police added.

According to the family members of the deceased man, the agents of the apps allegedly harassed and abused him over not repaying the money and also sent messages to his contacts, including relatives, describing him as a loan defaulter. Unable to bear the harassment he took his life, a police official said.
The man’s body was recovered from the railway tracks near the Shivarampally railway station.

He was identified as a fireman working with the Telangana State Disaster Response and Fire Services and posted at the Chandulal Baradari fire station. A case has been registered under Section 174 of the CrPC (Code of Criminal Procedure) against the organisation.

There are many such instances that have come to light, where such loan apps lure people by offering quick and easy loans with high interest rates and processing fees, but later resort to different forms of harassment. There have also been instances where the recovery agents have threatened the defaulters to morph the victims’ images as nude photographs and share them with their family members and others on their contact list.