CA Arrested in Illegal Digital Loan Racket

CA Arrested in Illegal Digital Loan Racket A chartered accountant from Delhi has been detained by the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of the Odisha Police for allegedly sending recovery agents to extort, harass, and abuse a man after providing him with a loan using an unlawful digital app. According to EOW authorities, accused Neerav Gupta @ Raman, a resident of Huda, Gurgaon, was detained on July 30 from Paschim Vihar, West Police Station Area, under Sections 294/384/420/467/468/471/120-B IPC and Section 66(D) of the 2000 Information Technology Act. He was taken into custody and brought before the Court of Metropolitan Magistrate, Tis-hazari court, New Delhi, before being brought before the SDJM, Bhubaneswar, on August 2. Dash claimed that the recovery representatives of the digital loan app "Kredit Gold," who sent him degrading and abusive texts as well as some altered photos, harassed, blackmailed, and tortured his mind. After installing the loan app "Kredit Gold," investigation found that Dash instantly obtained a Rs 9,000 loan, which was credited to his bank account. He received calls and messages four days later asking him to repay Rs 15,627, according to the press statement. Following that, he started receiving calls and texts from several mobile numbers that were later found to belong to a firm called M/s Good Start Business Pvt. Ltd., whose director was previously implicated in the case and whose director is Nitin Malik. Gupta was detained when Nitin Malik took the initiative. According to the EOW, Neerav Gupta, a chartered accountant, opened a number of shell companies with the express purpose of being used by Chinese nationals to facilitate cash transactions related to digital lending apps. The accused was also receiving sizable sums of money from Chinese individuals through Nitin, the statement continued. Chinese nationals paid him Rs 30 lakh for selling the shell firms that helped the loan app's business. At least 10 of these illegal loan APPS are allegedly operated by this transnational group. According to the EOW announcement, "Kredit Gold" APP alone has received more than a lakh downloads, and if all APPs are considered, there will be thousands of victims around the nation. Gupta was working for Chinese operators and is also wanted by various Law Enforcement Agencies in India. Materials including a laptop, two mobile phones, 11 seals of the shell companies, five digital signature certificate tokens, and four cheque books of four shell companies have been seized from Gupta. The investigation is now ongoing.