Chennai man kills self after loan app sends his morphed photo to his phone contacts

CHENNAI: A 33-year-old man died by suicide on Thursday allegedly due to stress related to debts and tactics employed by a loan app he used to borrow money.

Police said that the man had a debt of at least Rs. 1.25 lakhs which he had borrowed from his friends and through mobile loan applications.

Police identified the deceased as M Gopinath, who was employed in a travel agency functioning from Egmore.

Police said that investigation is on to find out whether he took the extreme step after being harassed by the loan app managers.

Gopinath was unmarried and was living with his parents at Pudupet. Police said that Gopinath had borrowed money from his friends and through online loan applications. Though he had repaid a few debts, some were still pending.

Gopinath's parents claimed that he had repaid a debt of Rs 40,000 received from a mobile loan application but that the people who ran the application continued to harass him.

"It looks like he had a debt of Rs 1.25 lakh and his morphed picture was circulated to people in his contacts. This could have made him take the extreme step," a police officer said.

The police also found his WhatsApp status where he had written 'Miss You Amma and Appa', and mentioned that he was going to kill himself. His call records are being analyzed and a probe is underway to identify people who have been in touch with him from the loan app.