15 arrested in Noida for extorting ₹310 crore from thousands across India

Fifteen arrested in Noida for extorting ₹310 crore via fake loan apps, linked to a gang in China and Indonesia, say police.

Fifteen people were arrested from a commercial building in Noida Sector 2 for extorting at least ₹310 crore from thousands of people across the country since January 2023, police said on Friday, adding that the arrested accused worked for a gang operating from China and Indonesia.

The 15 arrested accused. (HT Photo)

Police said that most of the extorted money was remitted outside the country via various channels. The gang operated two firms: a non-banking financial company (NBFC) that gave instant loans to people via phone apps, and a second firm through a call centre that made threat calls to these people and extorted money from them that was several times higher than the loan amount and interest.

Police said that the accused’s NBFC was linked to another NBFC whose registration was cancelled by the Reserve Bank of India last year.

Police got on track of the accused after they extorted ₹38,000 last year from a 25-year-old Gurugram resident who had taken a loan of ₹10,000 from an app run by the accused.

The accused were arrested in a raid on Wednesday night at a building where the call centre was functioning. The accused were identified as Harman Kumar, Anjaneya Chaudhary, Arun Kumar, Sachin, Bilal Khan, Mohammad Asif, Ujjwal Kumar, Salman Abbas, Suresh Kumar, Himanshi, Sunny Srivastava, Manmohan, Ripunjay Kumar, Anil, and Mahendra.

“The average daily collection was at least ₹40-45 lakh. Harman and Sunny were the main suspects who were running the call centre. They were getting paid ₹1 lakh per month by foreign entities. The others working below them drew a salary of ₹20,000- ₹25,000 per month,” said a police officer.

Harman and Sunny were paying a rent of ₹1 lakh per month for the commercial space in the building to run their call centre. Police said that 223 SIM cards, 15 mobile phones and five laptops were recovered from the accused.

The firm for which the accused were working was Dialback Private Limited, said Priyanshu Dewan, assistant commissioner of police, cybercrime. “This firm was affiliated with an NBFC named Vaishali Securities Private Limited. The NBFC firm disbursed instant loans while the other firm extorted the victims,” he said. Though the recovery firm was registered in India, it was being operated by suspects based in China and Indonesia, he added. “Several more will be arrested in the case,” he said.

Police said that they used to lend ₹5,000 to ₹60,000 for a period of seven to 21 days to their targets via 20 apps and they recovered almost triple the principal amount.

Dialback Private Limited previously worked for another NBFC named PSPR Enterprises Private Limited, which was among three NBFCs whose registrations were cancelled by the Reserve Bank of India on February 9 last year.

Based on a complaint from the victim, a first information report was registered against the accused under sections 384 (extortion) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code at Cybercrime police station (east) on Wednesday night.