Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Director General (DG) Mohsin Hasan Butt sought from the agency’s cyber crime wing on Thursday a progress report on the investigation launched into the death of a man in Rawalpindi — purportedly by suicide — due to “threats” made by loan apps over his failure to repay debts, an FIA spokesperson said.

The death, which occurred earlier this week, was reported on Wednesday (yesterday) by the media.

The deceased man’s wife, who wished not to be named, told Dawn.com yesterday that her husband had taken two loans from separate mobile apps, one of which had seen its principal plus interest amass to Rs0.7m.

The wife said he had initially taken a loan of Rs13,000 from EasyLoan app, which quickly soared to Rs100,000 a few days later due to interest. To pay back that loan, the he took another loan from Bharosa app, which also rose to Rs700,000 in a few weeks, she added.

Her husband, she said, had lost his job six months ago, leaving the family unable to pay for their children’s school fees and rent.

According to her, the officials operating the app “used to call daily to threaten and scare” the family of police action against them if the loan repayment was delayed, and her husband died by suicide after growing tired of the threats.

Following the incident, the deceased man’s brother, Muzammil Husain, filed a complaint with the Race Course police station under Section 174 (police to inquire to report in suicide, etc) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Later, an FIA team, headed by Deputy Director Cyber Crime Tahir Jamil and Additional Director Abdul Rauf visited the man’s family and registered a case after recording their statements, a Dawn report said.

Today, FIA spokesperson Abdul Ghafoor told Dawn.com that DG Butt had issued instructions to arrest the “elements involved in the incident” at the earliest.

“All resources should be employed for the arrest of the suspects and strict action should be taken against those harassing the citizens in the name of loans,” the spokesperson quoted the DG as saying.

He further told Dawn.com that the FIA had initiated a probe into the calls made to the deceased man by the loan apps and the investigation was being conducted by Inspector Badar Shahzad.

Sharing details of the probe and action taken so far, he said the authorities were obtaining the records of the calls made by the suspects and data of their location.

Moreover, the spokesperson added, the FIA Cyber Crime Wing, Rawalpindi had conducted raids at two locations in Islamabad’s G-8 sector and taken multiple laptops and computers into custody.

He said the offices of relevant apps had been sealed in the G-8 sector and details of “illegal loan apps” were being obtained from the Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan as well.

“In light of the details obtained from the Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan, further action will be taken against loan apps involved in illegal activities,” he said, adding that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority would also be requested to block illegal loan apps.

Furthermore, online promotion by illegal loan apps would also be restricted, he said.

The spokesperson further stated that an effective strategy would be devised in collaboration with the stakeholders to prevent the occurrence of such incidents in the future.

Meanwhile, citizens being harassed by loan app operators could file complaints with a nearby office of the FIA Cyber Crime Circle, he added.