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A 25-year-old man from Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatnam died by suicide after harassment by loan agents who morphed photos of his wife and sent them to his family and friends.
The victim, Sureda Narendra, a fisherman by profession, had borrowed Rs 2,000 through a mobile loan app due to weather-related work stoppages. Soon after, the loan agents began harassing him relentlessly, sending abusive messages and morphed images of his wife to friends and family with price quotes attached.
Despite repaying the loan, the agents continued to harass Narendra, leaving him feeling “humiliated" and “helpless".
On Tuesday, unable to cope with the ongoing torment, he took the drastic step. At the time, his wife, Akhila, a nurse’s assistant, was not at home. The couple, who had an inter-caste love marriage on October 28, had been married for just over six weeks.
Speaking about the incident, the police said that the agents morphed his wife’s photo into an inappropriate image and sent it to his contacts further adding that they are now working with the Cyber Police to trace the agents and the app involved.
“Narendra and his father are fishermen. But fishermen have been without livelihood for nearly two months now because of the weather. We don’t know if he needed the money because his wife Akhila also works. We are still investigating whether he borrowed only Rs 2,000 or more," Inspector B Bhaskar Rao of the Maharanipeta police station in Visakhapatnam told The Indian Express.
Police have also filed a case under Section 108 of the BNS (abetment of suicide) and relevant sections of the IT Act.
This marks the third such case reported in Andhra Pradesh within a week. In Nandyal district, a young woman faced harassment by loan app agents and attempted suicide. Fortunately, she was rescued by the police.

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