Gurugram, Mar 12 (PTI) The Gurugram police has arrested 38 people, including nine women, allegedly doubling as loan recovery agents without lenders' permission and blackmailing and extorting money from defaulters in paying credits taken through some Chinese and other lending apps.

Also Read | Jammu and Kashmir: Terrorists Killed CRPF Trooper on Leave in Shopian.

Police also raided a call centre run by them at a commercial complex in Udyog Vihar - Phase 1 here and seized 27 laptops and 44 mobiles used to run the racket.

A sum of Rs 1.70 lakh too was seized as the crime proceed, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime) Preet Pal Singh Sangwan said, adding an FIR in this connection has been registered at the Cybercrime police station.

Also Read | Fake Call Centre Busted in Gurugram, 38 Including 9 Women Held for Duping People on Pretext of Recovering Loan.

The arrested accused included two owners of the fake call centre, Delhi resident Shantanu Kaushik and Jhajjar resident Abhinav, he said.

The ACP said the accused first used to collect information about the people having taken loans through Chinese and other lending apps like “TX, PF, Karta Loan, Speed Loan, Super Wallet, One Loan, Rupee Loan, Rupee Bus, Handy Loan, CashPe, Loan Home, Cashbean Loan, Small Loan, Easy Credit, More Cash, Hi Rupee etc”.

They would then find out the defaulters among them and their phone numbers and by hacking their phones, they would access their contact lists, ACP Sangwan said.

The ACP added that they would then contact the alleged defaulters and ask for money from them while threatening them to share the information about non-payment of loans by them to their friends and acquaintances if they do not cough up the money.

Besides spreading this information to friends and acquaintances of the alleged loan defaulters, they would also send them their morphed pictures to extort money from the alleged defaulters, the ACP added.

The case is further being investigated, he added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)