The proprietor of a dubious company, which deceived the people by a fake loan App, has been arrested by the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of Odisha police, three days after the freezing of Rs 6.57 crores of its bank deposits.

“EOW Bhubaneswar assisted by Ghaziabad police of Uttar Pradesh arrested the proprietor of Firm IWT India Mohammad Javed Saifi. The arrested accused was produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate court in Ghaziabad and is being brought to Bhubaneswar on the strength of 3 days transit remand for his production in the Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate Court in Bhubaneswar”, EOW said in a statement on Friday.

Earlier, an amount of Rs 6.57 Crore was frozen from four accounts of Mahagram Payments Private Limited. Investigation of the case is continuing. The roles of other Partners/ accomplices involved in running such fake loan apps are under investigation, the statement added.

IWT India operated as a shell company to divert the money. Its proprietor Saifi used to get a small commission for it. It was further ascertained that several crores of rupees have been transacted through the account of IWT India. The account holder Mohd Javed Saifi could not explain this huge transaction, it stated.

As the fake company through its App used many complicated and technical layers and routes to evade detection and disorient police, we are taking help of technical experts, bank officials, chartered accountant to delve deep into the case. Three special teams of EOW are working on this case in different states like Maharashtra, Bihar, UP and New Delhi. We are also in touch with Telangana and Hyderabad police, said Deputy Inspector General of police, STF, Mr. Jai Narayan Pankaj.

Deceived by the fake App operator, more than 1.5 lakh people have downloaded this APP including many from Odisha.

During investigation, it has been ascertained that these fake loan apps once downloaded in one’s mobile Play Store, small amounts ranging from Rs 3000-5000 are credited through link or through UPI to the customers’ Bank account. Once the amount is credited to the customer’s Bank account, within a week the customer is asked to repay the amount along with an excessive rate of interest.

On refusal to pay the high rate of interest, the concerned customer is humiliated in many ways. Obscene messages and indecent pictures along with abusive texts are sent to his whatsapp number and as well as to his contact list.

During further investigation, it was ascertained that the victims who had downloaded KOKO loan APP from the Play store were credited small amounts from Mahagram Payments Private Limited which is not registered with Reserve Bank of India as a Non Banking Finance Company.