Hyderabad: The Hyderabad Police have arrested five representatives of the multi-level marketing firm QNET from a resort in Goa in connection with a multi-lakh fraud case, seizing three vehicles and digital evidence in the process.
The Economic Offences Wing of the Central Crime Station’s Detective Department arrested the five from the Novotel Resort and Spa in Candolim on July 18, while they were attending a company event. All five, natives of Kerala, were later produced before a magistrate in Mapusa, Goa, who granted a transit warrant for their transfer to Hyderabad.
The accused were identified as Mohammed Fawaz, 28, of Kozhikode, Aswin Suresh, 27, of Palakkad, Vinu alias Vinu Johnson D’Cruz, 32, of Thiruvananthapuram, Manoj Ravindran Nair Subbalakshmi, 34, of Thiruvananthapuram and Varikottuchalil Sivarajan Balraj, 32), of Kalpetta.
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Gym dream cost dearly
Police said the case stemmed from a complaint filed on July 16 by Sardar Sharanpal Singh, who alleged that Fawaz contacted him on Instagram while he was scouting gym space in Hyderabad and Bengaluru and lured him to Bengaluru on July 9 with the promise of a lucrative business opportunity.
He was introduced to QNET, marketed as a legitimate luxury-goods business linked to the QI Group, and induced through fabricated success stories and video presentations to invest Rs 7.5 lakh, the police said.
Singh was pressured to pay Rs 30,000 as a booking amount to secure a spot at an upcoming leadership event in Goa, which he transferred via UPI to Fawaz’s bank account. He grew suspicious after his wife and a friend advised him to verify the company independently, and found it had been widely linked to money-circulation and pyramid scheme activities, the police said.
Police said Fawaz had recruited Singh and received Rs 25,000 in his personal account, while Suresh had claimed to earn Rs 3-4 lakh a month to induce the investment. D’Cruz allegedly explained the scheme’s binary recruitment model, while Subbalakshmi and Balraj, described as “upline” members, had together recruited more than 25 people into the scheme through meetings, Zoom sessions and social media.
Cars, phones seized
Police seized a Toyota Fortuner belonging to one of the accused, along with a Kia and an MG Hector registered in the names of two absconding co-accused, besides five mobile phones containing WhatsApp chats, Instagram messages, emails and financial records. Police said efforts were on to trace the remaining absconding accused.
Hyderabad Police cautioned the public against joining or promoting QNET or similar multi-level marketing and money-circulation schemes, saying such schemes primarily targeted IT employees, unemployed youth, homemakers and students, and that any business driven mainly by recruitment rather than genuine product sales was illegal.
