Techie Kills Himself Over Harrassment From Digital Money Lenders; Took Rs 70,000 Loan, RBI Takes No Action

Covid 19 has caused so many job losses and it was reported that this ballooning numbers of job losses is worrisome for people.

One such heart wrenching and unfortunate news of a Hyderabad based Techie has surfaced.

The departed, identified as B sunil, aged 31, was a software professional who lost his job as a part of the layoffs done by the organization during the pandemic as well as lockdown which brought the economy at crossroads. He was found hanging in his house in Kismatpur of Rajendranagar.

After losing his job which robbed him of his livelihood, he resorted to online loan apps in order to bail him out of this crisis situation. Little did he know that his desperate attempt to stay afloat by taking online loan would rather aggravate the problem. Allegedly he took matters to his own hands due to being unable to bear pressure from executives and promoters of online loan applications.

One loan led to another:-

The techie who was facing a severe cash crunch, turned to an instant micro loan app for money according to Rajendranagar Inspector G Suresh. He first downloaded one app from Google Play Store and took a loan. Meanwhile, he was not able to find a job in order to repay the loan, as a result he downloaded at least 15 similar apps and borrowed smaller amounts ranging from Rs 2,000 to Rs 10,000. This led to the the total debt of 2 lakhs. “With pressure mounting on him to repay the first loan, he took more loans, with the total debt mounting to about Rs 2 lakh,” the Inspector said. He added that in order to get the loan from apps and as a part of critera, Sunil had shared the access of contact list on his phone with those apps.

He was constantly called by App executives and promoters asking to pay the EMI. They also began calling and messaging his mother, friends as well as relatives after taking their numbers from the contact list.

“With constant calls and messages, sometimes abusive and threatening ones, he was depressed. Though he got a job recently, he did not join there,” the police said, adding that instead he decided to end his life.

Relatives, who found him hanging in his house on Wednesday night, rushed him to a private hospital where doctors declared him dead.

When the harassment came to light:-

Police was unaware of the fact that Sunil was being harassed by app executives and promoters, and this only came to light when his family was trying to take the body to his native place in Mangalagiri in Guntur.

“His family initially did not tell us about the loans. They approached us to handover the body without a police case. It was during the enquiry that the harassment came to light,” a senior police official said.

Rajendranagar police booked a case based on a complaint from Sunil’s wife and were investigating. Officials said the call data and messages would be examined with the help of the Cybercrime Cell, after which, based on evidence, legal action would be taken against the app promoters and executives