Former World Billiards champion Michael Joseph Ferreira and three others arrested in connection with a business scheme called QNET scam in which people were duped of lakhs of rupees, were today sent to three days police custody.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sumit Dass allowed the police plea for custodial interrogation of the accused after the probe agency said it needed their custody to unearth a larger conspiracy.
The four accused were arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police on the complaint of 16 people alleging that Vihaan Direct Selling India Ltd, the Indian franchise of Hong Kong-based firm QNET, was involved in money circulation schemes and was trapping people on the pretext of starting e-commerce business forcing them to make more members in the scheme.
The police had claimed the complainants had lost money ranging from Rs one lakh to Rs 10 lakh each.
Those arrested are Vihaan Direct Selling India Ltd's stakeholders Ferreira and Malcolm Nozer Desai and its directors Srinivas Rao Vanka and Magaral Balaji.
On the modus operandi, the police said one person would convince a victim to invest between Rs 50,000 to Rs 10 lakh in his new business and organise meetings with his company officials who would explain to the victim a chain system. This process would allow bringing in more members on the basis of which a commission would assured to him, they said.
They said during investigation, it was found that the bank account of the company Vihaan Direct Selling India Pvt Ltd was opened in December 2015 in which, within a span of six months, around Rs 56 crore were deposited from various sources.
"More than 16 bank accounts of the company Vihaan Direct Selling PVT Ltd, the Indian franchisee of Hong Kong-based Qnet Company have been frozen and the total amount frozen in the banks is around Rs seven crore," they said.
More than 65 complaints have been received against QNET/ Vihaan and people have lost amounts ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 11 lakh each, the police said.
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