Loan apps case: Chinese finance firm PC Financial was already on ED’s radar

A 32-year-old Chinese national, as well as 20 others, have already been arrested by the cyber cell of Chandigarh Police after a series a raids across the country for allegedly cheating and extorting money from people after trapping them through small loan lending apps.

Chenghua was arrested from Greater Noida on Monday. A resident of Wuhan in China, police say that he had traveled to India in 2019 on a work visa, that he had obtained on the basis of being a chef. Chenghua’s visa had expired in 2021, but he continued to live in India illegally.  

Accused Wan Chenghua, Parvej Alam and Anshul Kumar are in police custody. The rest have been sent to judicial custody.

On Friday, police had stumbled upon the name of PC Financial Services Pvt Ltd — that had eventually shut down in 2020 — which they claimed had Chinese nationals in its top positions. The company was among 39 Non Banking Financial Companies (NBFC) that was being mostly governed by Chinese nationals and had come under the radar of Enforcement Directorate (ED), officers privy to the investigation said.

The police maintained that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had cancelled the licence of PC Finance Service Pvt Ltd in the month of February this year. So far, investigators have learnt that the…