Wayanad: A 44-year-old man committed suicide following threatening messages from online loan apps. Ajayraj was found hanging in a plot near the Arimula Ayappa temple temple on Friday. The police started an investigation on a complaint from his relatives stating that the death was caused by the threats of online loan sharks.

Ajayraj and his family live in a rented house in Puthur. The deceased, who was suffering from kidney disease, had taken a loan of around Rs 8 lakh from Kudumbasree, bank and private individuals. The credit was taken by pawning gold ornaments. Once Ajayraj’s wife also became ill, he fell into more debt. Meanwhile, he reportedly took a loan from an online loan app. But he didn’t inform anyone about this.

The loan sharks allegedly procured the photo of a young girl, Ajayraj’s son’s friend from the son’s contact list. They then proceeded to create a vulgar morphed image of the deceased and the girl and threatened him that the same would be forwarded to the girl among others. 

Ajayraj’s brother Jayarajan said that the loan app sent threatening messages saying they would send the pictures to the 570 contacts in the girl’s phone. He said that he received some anonymous calls on Saturday. Three other friends of Ajayraj were also sent the morphed images.

With this, they decided to approach the Meenangadi police, Jayarajan said. A screenshot of the chat with the app shows that the deceased had borrowed Rs 5000 from them. When one of the friends of Ajayraj who received the morphed images from a number associated with the app informed them of the latter’s death, they reportedly responded ‘very funny’. Along with this, the message also threatened  that the picture would be sent to everyone. 

The phones of Ajayraj and his friend have been taken by the police for further examination.