Gurugram: Actors Shreyas Talpade and Alok Nath are among those booked in a case of cheating and breach of trust registered at Murthal police station in Haryana’s Sonipat district. In the FIR registered on 22 January, the two actors figure among 13 accused in the case under Sections 316 (2), 318 (2) and 318 (4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for criminal breach of trust, cheating and transfer of property through deception.
Ajeet Singh, Additional Commissioner of Police (ACP), Murthal, told ThePrint that names of the two actors figured in the list of accused mentioned by the complainant in his statement to the police. “The main complaint is against the society that is alleged to have duped people of their money by luring them to invest. We will have to investigate what role, if any, is ascribed to Shreyas Talpade and Alok Nath,” said Singh.
Complainant Vipul Antil, a Sonipat resident, said in his complaint that the Human Welfare Credit Cooperative Society, registered in Indore under the Multi-State Cooperative Society Act, 2002, was active in many Indian states including Haryana since 16 September, 2016.
It offered Fixed Deposit (FD) and Recurring Deposit (RD) schemes with the promise of massive returns. But it allegedly adopted a multi-level marketing approach, in which agents were offered special incentives for adding more new investors.
The complaint alleged that the society assured investors that their money would be safe and the maturity amount would be paid on time.
In his complaint, Antil also said that the head of the society in Haryana was based in Mahendragarh and that the society operated more than 250 service centres or ‘suvidha kendras’ across the state where investors could deposit their money. In some cities, the society even operated an ambulance service as well as mobile ATM vans. It also organised social events at luxury hotels to lure investors, and in the name of ‘training’.
But as it turned out the society had been duping its investors, alleged the complainant. “First, the incentives of agents were stopped. Then payment of the matured amount of investors also started getting delayed. Soon, the owners switched off the phones, and the offices were locked.”
When investors and agents contacted those associated with the society still reachable, they were given false assurances.
The complainant in the case, Vipul Antil told ThePrint over the phone that he deposited Rs 33 lakh as FD with the society while his brother Amit who ran a ‘suvidha kendra’ deposited over Rs 4 crore of investors’ funds, largely from family and extended family members who now want their money back.
ThePrint made attempts to reach those named as accused in the FIR, but their mobile numbers were found switched off.
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Why is the Centre sleeping over this?
Millions of Indians have been fooled and scammed and taken advantage of by these multi-level marketing companies. The government must crack down severely on these scams.