The Punjab and Haryana high court has dismissed the bail plea of three accused in the instant loan scam, wherein ₹100 crore is feared to have been laundered to China.
The high court bench of justice Anoop Chitkara passed the order on the bail pleas of Sunil Chauhan, Madhukar Dubey and Akaram Mohammad, all arrested from Delhi NCR after the loan scam was busted by the Chandigarh Police in September last year.
Given the grievous nature of the offence, the petitioners are not entitled to bail at this stage, the bench observed, while recording that the accused took advantage of big loopholes in the procurement of Aadhaar cards and SIM cards. Surprisingly, the petitioners were able to obtain SIM cards on other persons’ names and also open bank accounts with such documents, it added.
Allegations were that the accused were running a racket through mobile app Hugo Loan. They would entice needy people for easy loans and when the app would be downloaded, it would seek access to the contacts and gallery. Thereon, the app would show them eligible for meagre amounts of loan and after realising the eligibility, the persons would not continue with the loan application.
However, in the meantime, the application downloads all contacts and photographs of the phone gallery. The gang members would scroll through the photographs to find intimate ones and then blackmail the persons by threatening to share the same with all their contacts, whose phone details have already been downloaded.
{{/usCountry}}However, in the meantime, the application downloads all contacts and photographs of the phone gallery. The gang members would scroll through the photographs to find intimate ones and then blackmail the persons by threatening to share the same with all their contacts, whose phone details have already been downloaded.
{{/usCountry}}A police probe had concluded that the gang was part of a wider nexus of money laundering and hawala transfers of ₹100 crore to China by way of series of transactions through mule accounts of shell companies.