Two Chinese and as many Indian nationals have been arrested for allegedly operating instant loan apps in Chennai, police said on Saturday.

Investigation, based on a complaint, revealed the prime accused to be operating from China, Chennai Central Crime Branch.

The two Indians had been operating the call centre from Bengaluru and had employed over 100 people to provide quick online loans, they said.

The complainant stated that due to the pandemic-induced lockdown, he was under extreme financial crunch and through social media advertisement, came to know about 'M Rupee', an instant money loan app.

The complainant borrowed Rs 5,000 rupees for which Rs 1,500 was taken as interest and Rs 3,500 was credited to his account. However, the complainant was made to pay 2 per cent interest for Rs 100 and at one point, began to get threat calls over repayment with higher rate of interest.

Police said that each employee had been asked to sanction instant loans to at least 10 people in a week and threatened of being sacked if they failed to do so.

The Chinese nationals ran the call centre with the assistance of the two Indians.

All of them were arrested in Bengaluru on December 31, 2020, and January 1, 2021, according to Chennai Commissioner of Police Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal.

The arrest was made following the complainant stating that he was subjected to agony, abuse, threats and harassment by the online loan app firms over repayment with higher rate of interest, the commissioner said in a press release.

It was also revealed that another Chinese national was the head of the call centre named True Kindle Technology Private Limited and he operated from China, the release said.

"We are investigating whether the Chinese are running loan apps targeting only India," the Commissioner further said.

Of late, there have been many instances of app-based money-lenders harassing borrowers over repayment, which led to suicides.

Modus operandi

The Indian nationals -- Pramoda and Pravan -- were running the call centre from Bengaluru and had employed 110 people who were lending money through nine different apps.

Their modus operandi was to find people with cash crunch, loan them money in high-interest return and then threaten them to pay, police said.

Upon investigation, Pramoda and Pavan allegedly confessed to have worked for two Chinese men, Xiao Yamao and Wu Yuanlun. All four were arrested and brought to Chennai and were sent to judicial custody.

Apart from M Rupee, My Cash, Aurora Loan, Quick Loan, Dmoney, Rapid Loan, Easy Cash, New Rupee and Rupee Loan were the eight apps run by them. These apps were designed by a techie called Nutham Ram.

The two Chinese men allegedly have also informed cops about the involvement of a person called Hong who apparently is the mastermind behind the entire scam.