RAWALPINDI:
A Rawalpindi court on Friday extended the interim bail of ten defendants, including four Chinese nationals, associated with an online loan application (app) in a case pertaining to threatening and blackmail of clients that led to an unemployed man’s suicide.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Ilyas also made the widow of the victim party to the case after accepting her application to join the lawsuit.
The cybercrime wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had arrested at least nine suspects in a raid at the offices of a financial service in the area of Rawal¬pindi’s Saidpur Road. The first information report (FIR) was registered against 19 accused for operating the company.
The action came in the wake of the suicide last month of a father of three, whose debt of Rs13,000 from one such app spiralled into a debt of over Rs0.7 million. The threats and blackmail from representatives of lending apps led to his suicide contends the family.
Since then, it has emerged that four Chinese nationals – Chen Yi, Tao Wang, Cao Ling and Jing Wi – were also among those charged in the case for offering loans through lending applications and using administrative pressure to extort high-interest rates.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 19th2023.
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