04.01.2017
Pune: Sleuths from the Cyber Crime Cell (CCC) of Pune police have arrested four persons in connection with QNet fraud, a multi-level marketing scam, wherein thousands of people were cheated. Two more persons are still on the run.
Till now, four persons who have been duped to the tune of Rs 50 lakh have approached the police. Based on a complaint from one of them, Mahesh Uttamrao Mane (28) of Latur, an FIR was registered against the accused persons on January 3 with Sangvi police station.
Senior Police Inspector Sunil Pawar, in-charge of CCC, told Sakal Times, “One of Mane’s friends introduced him to the accused persons who had made him believe that he will earn Rs 5 crore in four years. They initially asked him to pay Rs 4.56 lakh which Mane did by taking a personal loan. Later, he was asked to bring more persons who can pay Rs 4 lakh and was told that he will earn a commission if they join the company. Mane convinced a few of his friends to invest only to discover that they too were cheated of Rs 8.25 lakh.”
After getting complaints, a team under the guidance of DCP (Cyber Cell) Deepak Sakore nabbed TeenuRoshanlalWadhwani (24), a native of Uttar Pradesh, SidharthArunraoHarle (30) of Amravati, Vijay KashinathBhoi (27) of Amravati and Rahul Paravin Patra (25), a native of Odisha, MayuriKhanwale and Swapnil Jadhav are still absconding.
According to the police, the incident took place between June and September last year. Mane who works with an IT firm in Talwade, got acquainted with Harle four years ago while they were pursuing a course at the C-DAC. They remained in contact and this helped in establishing trust required for investment without knowing anything about the business.
“Harle told me that he required 2-3 more persons who can earn Rs 5 crore in four years. I met the other accused at Marriott Hotel where I was taken for an interview. The accused persons told me about the exact business after I paid the money. They had created my profile on portal.qnet.net website. They also gave me marketing books and video clips of talks. Later, on their advice I took my eight friends to them for investment and Rs 69,000 commission amount was transferred to my account when my friends joined this MLM company,” Mane stated in his complaint.
Police Inspector Manisha Zende, who is investigating the case, said, “The accused persons have been charged for various offences under the IPC and IT Act. We have seized various documents from them.