Nikhil Kamath on harassment by loan agents: 'If you're a victim, file a complaint at...'

Zerodha CEO and co-founder Nithin Kamath on Wednesday spoke out about apps that offer loans and the harassment meted out by their recovery agents which have on multiple occasions led to death by suicide for the borrowers.

Taking to Twitter, Kamath had a word of advice for the victims of such harassment -- file a complaint with the government.

"There has been a spate of suicides due to harassment by loan agents of shady and illegal predatory loan apps. If you are a victim of harassment, file a complaint at https://cybercrime.gov.in or call 1930. We have laws that protect you from harassment," he tweeted.

The harassment in a number of reported cases relies on morphing publicly available information of the borrower, particularly personal pictures, in a compromising way. This leads to extreme embarrassment which is difficult to explain away, given that the explanation itself would reveal the extent of debt that person was reeling under.

Highlighting this, Nithin Kamath wrote, "These apps lend at exorbitant rates, as high as 100–200 percent. They also get access to all contacts and photos when users install the app. If they don't repay, they start harassing all the contacts with calls and lewd pictures that are morphed."