College topper commits suicide over loan app harassment

Predatory practices employed by digital loan sharks have claimed yet another life in the city.

A sixth semester engineering student hanged himself to death using his mother’s veil at the HMT quarters in Jalahalli.

The jurisdictional police said that the incident came to light on Tuesday evening and the deceased was identified as Thejas, 22, a mechanical engineering student at a private college in Yelahanka.

Sources revealed that the student was a topper in the college. Preliminary investigation re - vealed that Thejas had borrowed money from loan apps like Kissht , SlicePay and Kotak Mahindra, for his friend Mahesh.

However it is alleged that Mahesh failed to repay the loan following which Thejas started getting calls from money lenders and their recovery agents. Gopinath, father of the deceased student, alleged that Mahesh had not paid the EMIs for the last one year and the recovery agents started harassing Thejas.

Unable to bear the harassment, Thejas left a death note addessed to his parents stating that he was unable to take the harassment any longer and committed suicide.

Gopinath said that on Wednesday morning, a recovery agent had come looking for Thejas at his house. However when he came to know about his suicide, the agent fled from the spot.

Gopinath registered a complaint against the loan apps at Jalahalli Police Station. Sources from the police said that the student had taken loans from the online apps and given it to his friend.

“The deceased had also borrowed money from his cousins to repay the loan and borrowed from the apps again and again to return money to his cousins. He had borrowed around Rs 30,000 including interest and late fee charges and he had to pay back around Rs 45000,” the police said.

The autopsy was conducted at the MS Ramaiah hospital. Thejas’ sister Nanda performed the last rites on Wednesday