Loan app's pressure suspected in Kerala dental student's death

According to the police, after Raj defaulted repayment of loan of Rs 14,000, the loan app operator contacted his faculty members and pressurised them.

Thiruvananthapuram: The death of a dental student in Kerala by suicide took a fresh twist as the police registered a case against a loan app operater, who is yet to be identified.

While the family of deceased student Nithin Raj alleged that casteist and racial slur by a section of teachers led to the suicide, the police suspect that Raj was also under stress due to pressure by an online loan app operator to repay a loan he availed.

According to the police, after Raj defaulted repayment of loan of Rs 14,000, the loan app operator contacted his faculty members at the Kannur Dental College at Anjrakandi in Kannur and pressurised them. The police were trying to trace the online loan app operator from Raj's mobile phone.

Of late there were several instances of people being trapped by online loan apps that offer easy loans. Last month a 21 year old youth in Thiruvananthapuram ended life allegedly after a loan app operator sent his morphed picture to relatives and friends after defaulting in repayment.

Meanwhile, Raj's family said that neither Raj nor any of his faculty did not inform them about harassment by loan apps.

The police had also arraigned head of dental anatomy department Dr M K Ram associate professor Dr Sangeetha in the case pertaining to Raj's death.

A section of students staged a protest on Monday alleging that many of them had also faced harassment from the faculty.

Raj, hailing from Uzhamalakkal on the suburbs of Thiruvananthapuram, was found dead at the college premises on Friday. He was suspected to have jumped from the hospital building.