across india, at least 60 people have taken their own lives after being abused and blackmailed by loan apps. bbc eye investigations goes undercover to reveal the scam that's plaguing india... ..and to expose the people making money from misery, fear and shame.

this is how the trap is set. you get a message saying you've been approved for an instant loan. all you have to do is download the app, accept the terms and conditions... ..and the money is yours. what you don't know is you're already in the trap. the app is extracting all your personal information — your id cards, your photos and videos... ..the names and numbers of yourfamily, your colleagues, yourfriends. that's when the

extortion begins. my name is poonam agarwal. i am an investigative reporter. last year, i began to hear stories about people scammed by loan apps. most victims are too ashamed to talk, but one wanted to warn of the dangers of the trap.

bhoomi moved from loan app to loan app, borrowing one loan to pay another, often getting 30 or a0 calls a day. eventually, she paid them off. but one app, asan loan, kept calling.

asan loan had photoshopped bhoomi's face onto this porn image and sent it to every contact on her phone.

it had been hard to find a victim willing to talk. it was even harder to find a perpetrator. eventually, though, i got in touch with a young guy, rohan — not his real name — who had worked recovering money for loan apps.

to expose the scam, i needed evidence. so, i asked rohan to wear a secret camera and take us inside a call centre. rohan is going inside majesty legal.

this delhi—based company doesn't give out loans. it calls borrowers on behalf of the loan apps to chase payments. most calls are polite. but if you don't pay on time, things start to get nasty. rohan had gathered crucial evidence of abuse, but some

of his colleagues were getting suspicious. it wasn't safe to send rohan back, but now he told me about another call centre — a place in noida — where the abuse was said to be even worse. they were recruiting agents, and rohan applied for a job. while rohan was undercover, i was still trying to find out who had harassed bhoomi to the brink of suicide. we had heard that many of these apps are owned by chinese investors, but we could find no name or address. the app just said asan loan.

eventually, ifound a name for the man running asan loan... ..parshuram takve. takve had a facebook page... ..and a chinese wife named liang tian tian. he also had a criminal record. takve had been running debt recovery for multiple loan apps. complaints had piled up — extortion, blackmail, the use of obscene images. in december 2020, he had been arrested and released on bail. the facebook account was locked, and the man had vanished. but in pune, ifound someone who used to work for parshuram ta kve.

takve was running recovery for many loan apps. and then the worst happened — customers began taking their own lives.

we know of at least three people who killed themselves after being shamed by takve�*s recovery agents. they aren't just numbers. they all had a name, a family and a future. in telangana, ifound the parents of one of them... ..a 24—year—old woman called mounika.

he sobs quietly

was there no limit to the misery the loan apps would inflict? it made me even more determined to expose the people profiting

from the trap. then, i got a call from rohan. he had been accepted for thejob at the call centre in noida. lock beeps this is the callflex corporation, a call centre that recovers money for loan apps, including one called paysense. most calls are respectful. but, just like in the first call centre, if you fail to pay, the tone changes.

if you still don't pay, the threats begin. rohan�*s new colleagues were brazen about the tactics they used. after three weeks filming secretly inside the call centre, rohan met me in a park.

so, rohan arranged a meeting with the manager. he went with another undercover reporter posing as an investor. they asked vishal chaurasia to explain exactly how loan recovery works.

abuse was effective, but even more powerful was shame.

the manager had distilled the scam to its essence — call centres recover money for loan apps by threatening to destroy people's lives. breaking news coming in — when it comes to the crackdown on chinese loan apps, that's our top focus on the bulletin. the indian authorities were starting to crack down on the loan apps. in april 2022, parshuram takve and his chinese wife were charged with extortion, intimidation and abetment of suicide.

by the end of the year, they were on the run. behind takve, there's a whole web of companies. parshuram takve was the director of four businesses. his chinese wife, liang tian tian, gave her name to the largest, jiyaliang, which recovered money for predatory loan apps. some of those loan apps were set up or supported by two chinese—owned companies. behind both of them was a mysterious businessman called li xiang. li xiang kept himself well hidden. we found nothing online — no social media accounts and no photos. but the money trail led to one city — hong kong.

here, we found a phone number linked to one of his employees. posing as investors, we asked if he could set up a meeting with li xiang. phone rings hello? ni hao. hey, hey. li xiang, ni hao. hao. . ni hao. li xiang was quick to tell us about his fintech and loan app businesses in india.

then li xiang made the key admission — his companies, controlled from hong kong, harvest indians�* contacts and exploit them to recover loans. their recovery plan is precise. finally, we had a face for li xiang... ..and evidence that he was profiting from the misery of ordinary people. parshuram takve used extortion, intimidation and fear in order to recover money.

at least some of that money ended up in the accounts of this man. when i started this investigation, i never imagined the misery i would find. at least 60 indians, many of them very young, have killed themselves after being blackmailed and shamed by the loan apps. it was heartbreaking. but despite the suffering, the scam continues. a year after parshuram takve went on the run, his app, asan loan, is still trading, still abusing, still destroying lives. in mumbai, though, bhoomi was starting to rebuild hers.

hello, there. for many of us, friday was a day to get out and enjoy some of the beautiful autumn colour, but at this time of year, clear skies by day, well, if we keep them through the night, it can cause other issues, with frost and fog, and yes, those two components are going to play quite a major role in the weather story this weekend. saturday will be the driest of the two days. there is some rain around on sunday. more details on that in just a moment, but it will be a chilly start — quite widely we will see low single figures, particularly in sheltered central and eastern areas. this weather front will start to push in by the end of the day, but before it, we have this brief ridge of high pressure, which will keep things quite quiet and with light winds as well.

and with light winds, as well. so a few isolated showers on exposed coasts, not amounting to much, frost and fog will lift away, sunny spells come through by the middle part of the afternoon, and temperatures, well, they will recover after that chilly start. we are expecting to see highs of 7 to 11 degrees. maybe 12 down to the southwest, but you can see the rain gathering, perhaps into the isles of scilly by the end of the afternoon. so that weather front will start to push its way into cornwall, and eventually into south wales. there's that weather front and ahead of it, it will push in a little more moisture, so we are expecting more fog around for the start of sunday. remembrance sunday could be quite a drab, dreary affair, with some widespread fog at times. the rain down to the south, but it may well stay dry at 11 o'clock in scotland. a murky morning, certainly, but the rain, light and patchy into northern ireland, perhaps into northern england, heavier bursts through wales and southwest england,

perhaps for london, to the cenotaph, it should stay dry during the morning. but then we will see outbreaks of showery rain drifting its way steadily northwards throughout the day. it'll stay dry for scotland, here around seven or eight degrees. underneath the cloud and rain it will feel rather cool and disappointing, i'm afraid. then as we move out of sunday into monday, we start to see the wind direction swinging back to more of a westerly or a southwesterly and that will introduce milder but unfortunately, once again, it will introduce some wetter weather. so our week ahead — a little more unsettled with showers or longer spells of rain at times.

live from washington, this is a bbc news and special report on the impact of the israel gaza war on women and girls. the united nations sounds the alarm that 67% of those killed in gaza are women and children. with the health system on the brink of collapse, palestinian women face the prospect of giving birth under bombardment. is really women are still being held hostage by hamas, one son tells the bbc about his search for his mother. thank you for joining me. as the israel gaza

war continues women and girls are facing devastating and at times disproportionate consequences, that is the warning this week from nations agencies experts. in gaza, 67% of all civilians killed the women and children and on the seventh of october women and children are among those taken hostage by hamas, designated a terrorist organisation by the uk and us. ward does impact those caught in its crosshairs in different ways, and he was a chief international correspondent, giving this assessment of the conflict our colleagues. they used to be this phrase that in wars gone by, women and children first, first on the boat, first on the train, protect the women and children, the innocence in these wars, but now, women and children first seems to mean first hit, and in was about time which afford street to street and house to house, it is the women and children who

are paying the