A private employee ended his life by consuming pesticide at Mamidipally of Dandepally mandal in Mancherial district on Saturday, nearly 250 km from here, allegedly due to harassment by loan app operators.
The victim who was in his mid 30s, Bommadi Rajendra Prasad, was working with a lifestyle e-commerce wing of a private company. He consumed pesticide two days ago at his house in Mamidipally. His wife Varalaxmi, an Anganwadi teacher, rushed him to a hospital in Mancherial.
As his condition deteriorated, he was shifted to a private hospital in Karimnagar, 100 km away from their village. “Prasad died while undergoing treatment on Saturday,” Dandepally SI M. Sambamurthy said.
Mancherial DCP Akhil Mahajan IPS said that the victim secured loan amounts from different private loan app companies ranging from ₹7,000 to ₹10,000. The total sum he borrowed was around ₹50,000 from CashSamosa, CashBean, HelloRupee, YahaRupee, EZCredit and DaisyCash companies.
He secured these loans from this March to August. However, he had been allegedly receiving phone calls from loan app operators stating that he owed them a total sum of nearly ₹7 lakh.
A case under Section 306 (abetment to suicide) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 66 of the IT Act was registered against the loan app operators.
The SI said that the victim had prepared a text message on how the loan app operators had harassed him by demanding ₹7 lakh for a loan amount of ₹50,000.
Police are verifying reports that the loan app operators sent him some objectionable photos threatening to harass him by making those photos public.
This is the second suicidal death due to loan app operators’ harassment in the district. On May 19, a married woman, Bollu Kalyani, 30, resorted to the extreme step by hanging from the ceiling rod in her bathroom at Mancherial town. No arrests were made in this case so far.
(Roshni - Suicide prevention helpline: 040-66202000.)
