Hyderabad, Mar 23 (PTI) The Hyderabad police has busted a multi-crore illegal money circulation racket allegedly promoted by the Vihaan Direct Selling Pvt Ltd Company (QNet), with the arrest of 32 people across Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
Hyderabad Police Commissioner V C Sajjanar said 30 police teams simultaneously conducted an inter-state operation in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, and arrested 32 people.
Most of the accused were IT employees, including some former IT employees. So far, 11 victims have been examined in four cases and nearly Rs 75 lakh has been lost and many more victims are yet to be examined, the Commissioner said in a release.
Efforts are on to apprehend the absconding accused persons involved in the fraud network, he said.
Four cases were registered against Vihaan Direct Selling Pvt Ltd (Q Net), formerly known as Gold Quest, Quest Net, a Hong Kong-based multi-level marketing (MLM) company owned by the QI Group in India, marketing under the brand name of QNet, police said.
Sajjanar in a post on ‘X’ said, “This fraudulent network lured IT employees and youth with fake promises of high returns. I urge the public NOT to fall for such get-rich-quick traps.” Promoting or joining these schemes is a punishable offence under the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978, he said.
The company targeted software employees, and unemployed youth in the name of part-time employment and attracting people in the name of E-Commerce business, investment with high returns opportunity, Sajjanar said.
The group took select persons to hotels at Hi-tech City here and explained the investment plan without disclosing the name of the company and lured with promises of earning up to Rs 4 crore within two years for investment of Rs 5 to 10 lakh.
Initially, they do not reveal the name of QNet Company, Multi Level Marketing nor binary method.
However, contrary to the investment, when a person receives some products, they misrepresent in some cases that they are gifts from the company to continue in the scheme and thus they divert the investment amount to purchase the products in MLM scheme without their consent and knowledge, Sajjanar said.
The company invokes many Ponzi schemes and Binary Schemes, product-based, Vacation Packages etc., business tactics which are illegal, he added.
“This group of people showcase sale of products in the front-end and in the back-end promote illegal money circulation scheme by promising huge commissions and income on the enrollment of new members in their binary model enrollment scheme.” According to police, the scheme of QNet is a binary model, where one person has to enroll two persons (two new members). “The person who enrolled is called upliner and the person who was enrolled under them is called downliner. They refer to each member as an Independent Representative (IR),” police said.
The enrolment scheme of members with the inducement of high commissions squarely attracts the provisions of illegal money circulation scheme banned under the provisions of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978, police added.
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