Two people, including a Chinese national, were arrested on Wednesday as part of an ongoing police investigation into instant app-based lenders accused of harassing borrowers over repayment.

They were arrested in Thane in Maharashtra by a team from the Rachakonda Police Commission after destroying a Pune-based call center in December last year, which was used to collect loan amounts from the borrowers, police said.

With this, a total of four Chinese nationals were arrested, along with several more and 50 cases were recorded, following complaints from people. “The arrested Chinese national came to India in July 2019 on a business visa and worked as a representative on behalf of three Chinese nationals, who are directors of some microfinance loan application companies,” said Rachakonda Police Commissioner Mahesh M Bhagwat.

The crackdown on instant money lending app companies was launched after six cases of suicides, due to the harassment of these companies, were reported in Telangana since December 2020. Police said the lending companies, through instant loan apps, offer loans to people and charge huge interest. processing fees, among others.

They then resort to systematic abuse, harassment and threat of defaulters through call centers operating across the country. Police also hired data analysis experts to study the big data, as a preliminary investigation into the financial transactions of online loan enforcement companies revealed transactions of 1.4 crore a worth almost Rs 21,000 crore.