Three individuals have been arrested in connection with the tragic death of a Kerala dental student, allegedly driven to suicide by harassment from a loan app company.
Three men, arrested from Noida in Uttar Pradesh a day earlier by a cybercrime police team from Kannur in connection with the death of a first-year BDS student at a dental college in Kerala, were on Saturday remanded to judicial custody.
The Uttar Pradesh natives Rishikesh Tiwari (32) and Prashant Khewal (28), and Prakash Jai (54) from Haryana, were arrested by the cyber crime team with the assistance of Uttar Pradesh Police from an IT park-like establishment in Noida, where around 40 people were working, Kannur police said.
They were remanded to judicial custody by the Kannur Judicial First Class Magistrate Court. Meanwhile, the family of the student continued to claim that his death had nothing to do with loan apps and expressed dissatisfaction with the police investigation.
The trio, who allegedly operated a loan app called "Instant Funds," were arrested based on a complaint filed by one of the teachers of the deceased student, police said.
Police said that after the student-Nithin Raj R L (22)- borrowed money through the app and failed to repay it, repeated calls and messages were made to the teacher's phone number, which had been provided as a reference.
The callers allegedly threatened to continue harassing the teacher if the money was not repaid, police said.
When one number was blocked, harassment reportedly continued from other numbers, following which the teacher lodged a complaint.
Police said that although most of the numbers used to harass the teacher were found switched off during the investigation, one remained active, through which it was traced that the accused were in Noida.
Subsequently, the cybercrime team reached Noida, traced the establishment where the accused were working, and arrested them with the help of Uttar Pradesh Police.
An inspection of the premises by the team revealed that the accused allegedly used SIM boxes instead of phones to make calls, police said.
A SIM box is a device used as part of a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) gateway setup. It contains multiple SIM cards, including those of different service providers.
Raj, a first-year BDS student at a private dental college in Anjarakandy, was found critically injured after falling from a building on April 10 and later succumbed to his injuries.
Police have registered a case against two faculty members for abetment of suicide and under provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, following allegations that Raj was harassed over his caste and complexion.
In addition, two separate FIRs have been lodged against two different loan apps in connection with his death.