’Sorry, mom and dad’: Harassed by loan agents, Bengaluru student dies by suicide

Mangalore Today News Network

Bengaluru, July 13, 2023: A 22-year-old engineering student died by suicide in Bengaluru on Tuesday after allegedly facing harassment from executives representing a Chinese mobile application providing loans.

 

Tejas hanged himself at his residence in Bengaluru’s Jalahalli. He was studying engineering at Nitte Meenakshi College in Yelahanka.

The agents allegedly resorted to blackmail, threatening to expose the student’s intimate photographs stored on his mobile phone if he failed to repay the loan.

According to the police complaint, Tejas’s family said he had borrowed some money in the form of a loan from the ’Slice and Kiss’ Chinese app. However, he was unable to repay the amount.

The student’s father, Gopinath, who later learnt about the entire incident, agreed to repay the amount in installments on behalf of his son, as per the complaint.

It was alleged that agents from the mobile application visited Tejas’s home, employed intimidation tactics and made threatening phone calls.

Three days prior to Tejas’s death, Gopinath had requested for additional time to settle the outstanding debt, but the lenders didn’t budge.

On Tuesday evening, the app agents allegedly made several calls to Tejas, which apparently led him take the extreme step.

In a note, he wrote: "Sorry mom and dad for whatever I did. I have no other choice other than this. I am unable to pay other loans that is there in my name and this is my final decision... Goodbye."

Courtesy: India Today