Hyderabad, Jun 29 (PTI) AICC spokesperson Dasoju Sravan on Wednesday demanded Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to abolish and crack down on illegal online loan apps that are harassing borrowers over repayment.

Also Read | Udaipur Beheading: Cop Attacked with Sword in Bhim as Mob Prevented From Advancing Towards Mosque.

In an open letter to Rao, popularly known as KCR, Sravan urged to set up a Special Task Force within the police department to crack down on all the online loan apps and ensure that they are completely shut down.

Also Read | Tamil Nadu Shocker: 16-Year-Old Girl Forced to Donate Ovum to Various Infertility Centres in Erode, Attempt Suicide.

"Though these online apps offer loans at higher interest rates and charge exorbitant amounts in the name of processing fee, late fee and other pretexts, people are forced to approach these loan apps as they are completely let down by traditional banks, which turns a blind eye to poor and middle class borrowers," the Congress leader said in a release.

"As most of these apps are illegal and do not have any valid registration, they resort to all sorts of immoral practices and fleece people. The operators of these online loan apps resort to dirty tactics for recollection. Due to the harassment of the recovery agents, several people have committed suicide," he said.

"The research and inquiry done by us revealed the shocking fact that more than 90 per cent of online loan apps neither have NBFC registration nor are backed by any bank or NBFC," Sravan said.

NBFC refers to non-banking financial companies that are engaged in the business of advances and loans.

The Congress leader urged the Chief Minister to set up a separate cybercrime police team with a toll-free number to address this issue, as the crimes and complaints relating to online loan apps are rising steeply.

He called for creating an inter-state investigative team, with police from other states as members, as many online apps operate across the country.

The Telangana police, which launched a crackdown against instant money lending app firms and arrested several accused, had earlier said the lending companies, through instant loan apps, offer loans to people and levy huge interest and processing charges, among others.

They then allegedly resort to harassing borrowers over repayment, by systematically abusing, harassing and threatening the defaulters through call centres operating from across the country.

(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)