New Delhi, Jul 30 (PTI) Four men were arrested for allegedly duping people on the pretext of providing cheap loans, police said on Thursday.

The accused were identified as Kuldeep Mishra (23), a resident of Rama Vihar, Rajan Tiwari (23), a resident of Sultanpuri, Manish (24), a resident of Kirari's Suleman Nagar, and Vinod Paswan (40), a resident of Sarai Rohilla, they said.

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The police received a complaint on July 21. The complainant, Harsh, who had a private job and was pursuing his BCA, alleged that he received a call on July 13 regarding an interest-free loan to be given by a finance company from its Lajpat Nagar branch, a senior police officer said.

The complainant also received a loan application form on WhatsApp, the police said.

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"After all necessary communications, they demanded money as commission and several taxes for clearing the loan of Rs seven lakh. The complainant transferred around Rs 1.5 lakh. After receiving the money, the accused switched off their mobile phones," Deputy Commissioner of Police (northwest) Vijayanta Arya said.

A case was registered at the Shalimar Bagh police station and the accused were arrested following technical surveillance from Sultanpuri on Wednesday evening, the DCP said.

The probe revealed that the accused had set up a call centre in New Multan Nagar around a month-and-a-half ago, the police said.

The accused initially targeted people in Uttar Pradesh, but did not get a good response and subsequently, started targeting people in Delhi. They used to open bank accounts on the basis of fake identification papers and addresses, the police said.

(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)