Our reporter visits Kathmandu to reveal inner workings of mobile loan racket even as 200 km away, an office full of workers was dedicated to morphing images of borrowers to defame them
The canteen of the now-shut call centre at Tinkune, Kathmandu, used to cook for 1,000 people a day
Mumbai was the prime target of three call centres that were recently busted by the Nepal police over instant loan apps. Run by Chinese nationals, these call centres—at Tinkune and Thamel in Kathmandu and Butwal in Rupandehi district—sucked out hundreds of crores of rupees from India’s financial capital every month. The Nepal police action came after mid-day broke the story on the instant loan app scam, followed by a series of reports.
Sources in the Nepal police said the callers, or recovery agents, were paid between Nepalese rupees 55,000 and 1.5 lakh—equivalent R34,000 and R94,000—every month. One of the call centres operated from Tinkuney, just 1 km away from the Tribhuvan International Aiport in Nepal capital, while the other was in Thamel, a popular tourist place 4 km from the airport, where 4 Chinese nationals were arrested from the third floor of a building.
Also read: Loan app scam: Digital lending firms were cheating own employees
The notice on the main gate
The size of the Tinkune call centre indicates the scale of operations of the Chinese loan sharks. It can accommodate 1,200 employees and ran a huge canteen that…
