The Bombay High Court while rejecting anticipatory bail applications of five accused in the multi-crore QNet scam, has observed that "the deceit and fraud is camouflaged under the name of e-marketing and business". This scheme is undoubtedly a multi-level marketing (MLM) activity and a pyramid structure of such scheme is prepared so that the members are promised to get money on purchase and sale of products, the Court said.
In a hard-hitting order on 6 May 2016, Justice Mridula Bhatkar said, "The motto of the company 'sell more, earn more' appears very attractive and innocuous. However, this motto is fully camouflaged. The company stands on a basic statement that people can be fooled. Thus, the true motto is 'sell more earn more' by fooling people. In fact it is a chain where a person is fooled and then he is trained to fool others to earn money. For that purpose, workshops are conducted where study and business material is provided with a jugglery of words, promises and dreams. Thus, the deceit and fraud is camouflaged under the name of e-marketing and business."
"It has very grave and serious impact on the economic status and mental health of the people on a large scale. On considering parameters of section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, I am not inclined to protect the accused. It won't be out of place to mention that such circulation is required to be stopped. It is necessary for the prosecution to take injunctive steps against this business activity, which is prima facie, illegal. Though by stopping this business, a large group of people may get financially affected, however, it will save larger groups of people from becoming prey of this activity," the Bombay HC said.
The HC rejected bail applications of five including, Srinivas Rao Vanka and Magaral Veervalli Balaji, both directors of Vihaan Direct selling (India) Pvt Ltd, Suresh Thimiri, director of Transview Enterprises India Pvt Ltd, Malcolm Nozer Desai, who is a 20% stakeholder in Vihaan and Michael Joseph Ferreira, former world champion of billiards and an 80% stakeholder in Vihaan.
"I have gone through the plan which is given by QNet to every individual representative (IR)," Justice Bhatkar said. "I have gone through the statements of many witnesses, who claimed that they have been cheated under the scheme launched by QNet. I have also considered the conclusive report of Serious Fraud Investigation Agency (SFIO) under the Company Act) SFIO Prima facie, there is material to hold that the business conducted by Qnet is covered under PCMC Act and also under Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954."
"However," the Bench added, "the things are not as straight as they are perceived on the surface. Assuming that the scheme was launched with a noble object to give benefit to maximum people to make money quickly and easily by selling products of the company, however, after going through the material placed before me including the statements of the witnesses, I am of the view that in the midway, the intention of the applicants/ accused, who are the directors and shareholders of the company, became dubious. They had knowledge that more members are suffering financial losses and they are not satisfied with the products. The claim that the wellness products i.e., Biodisk and Chi Pendent are medicinal and spiritual products, are after all, a matter of faith. However, the applicants/ accused have launched these wellness products with ulterior motive and with correct judgment of vulnerability of the people. The holiday packages, which were sold or offered, without any choice left to the buyers. The entire business was Internet based and, therefore, the persons who are responsible i.e., the top brass i.e., the applicants/ accused, were not approachable to the persons who were aggrieved. The nature of the business was knitted in the interest of the Directors and shareholders in such a manner that the persons who are at the lower level of the pyramid cannot get any access to put up their grievances. The manner in which the persons were contacted, incentives offered, the workshops were conducted, are best examples of inducement."
Earlier, Pradeep Gharat, special Public Prosecutor submitted before the Bench that Vanmala Hotels, Travels and Tourism Services Private Ltd and Pallava Resorts Private Limited have created a Website and travel packages. "The commission was not paid on the products though the new members were introduced. The registered office of Vanmala Hotels, Travels and Tourism Services Pvt Ltd company is a call center," he said.
He further submitted that in December 2014 the Ministry of Corporate Affairs sealed their office at Chennai and declared Gold Quest International Pvt Ltd and QuestNet Enterprise (P) Ltd as the fraud companies. "Thus, money is collected online and though the Independent Representative number is given, actual money was not available for withdrawal. Said money was laundered outside India. The police in the investigation have come across 73 bank accounts of Q Net Ltd and total laundering of is around Rs135 crore," Adv Gharat had said.
Below is the order passed by the Bombay HC…
Earlier in February 2016, the special Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) Court had also rejected anticipatory bail applications of these five. The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police, which is probing the case, had invoked the stringent MPID Act against controversial multi-level marketing (MLM) company QNet, which has denied any wrongdoing on its part.
Gurupreet Singh Anand, a computer consultant from Lokhandawala, Andheri in his first information report (FIR) stated that his wife was duped for Rs30,000 by some people who had introduced themselves as the independent representatives (IRs) of QNet.
While arguing before the HC in person, he contended that the illegal money circulation scheme is being conducted in India by changing names from GoldQuest to QuestNet to the current QNet.
Earlier, the
SFIO in its detailed ‘secret’ report on GoldQuest International Pvt Ltd and Quest Enterprises India Pvt Ltd has called multi-level marketing (MLM) schemes run by overseas operators as “a potential threat to national security”.
Last year during the pandemic situation, Our family moved temporarily from Mumbai to Karnataka. We tested positive over there and isolated 28 days ( 7+7+14). During that time one of my hostel friend called me and told me that he is doing a great business where we need to work together and you are a partner. He defined that its an E-commerce business and you will get minimum 10 to 15K per week as a profit. With him he involved one of his colleagues, who explained the plan in very positive profit way. That time I was in district hospital. I said ok I will join once I get discharge from here ( all the communications happened through zoom). I believed because of my hostel mate and college mate is doing and he was recently resigned from hi IT job. I was impressed wow lovely , I started feeling like millioner. That time I told my friend( not now) that I dont have money right now, difficult for me to arrange the money that is 2 Lakh. again after few days he called and told that we have a new offer for you, that is 1.75 if you subscribe before friday, and transfer some amout to freeze the position. I asked my wife to arrange 20K and transferred to him. After one week again he called we have another package where you have to pay only 1.5 Lakh package. Again I convinced my wife to give her ornaments to invest in this business. After somany arguments and conditions she was okay with that. I told her that within 3 months I will return her ornaments once I get the profit from this business. I transferred the money and waiting for his reply. He created Id and told me to send some documents. I have done that too. post that actual picture started no one is ready to explain what is this business about and all. I wasted 3 months by attending the meetings. post that torture started from family 1.5 lakh ornamets 3 months compled. He was not ready to listen anything if I ask his upper hands used to say, signup someone like that. Finally I left. Currently my financial condition is worst. Keep on asking he is refsuing to return the money he again convincng me to do the bsuiness with him. Guys dont waste your precious time with these bullshit firm. You will be suffering a lot. Still my conditions are very bad. Family torture financial crisis. I tried to attempt suicide but failed. Its not only about money , its someone breaks your faith and trust.
Thanks
i have taken a loan for this
Being in the organisation i have seen that most direct sellers are in huge debt as the credit is obtained very easily. and all that for what? to fake a lavish lifestyle..We are trained to show off, to fake huge turnovers and business model that is "GLOBAL" the truth is most developed countries like USA have banned QNET. these people are not even business persons. but they like to call themselves business persons. they are in reality sales executives who work only on commission.
The products that they offer for 4-5 lacs have been proven in several courts in india to be too overvalued. the cost of which would not be more than 15000. its a money circulation scheme dressed in MLM to give it a legal standing. This company is already banned in many states and liquidation order has been passes in late 2019. so please if you are getting into it beware. you could end up losing all your money
These people first trap a victim and then through him, trap the victims family members too, thus a family ends up losing 4 times the money initially quoted for one victim. A tech in Bangalore and many others have committed suicide because he did not want to trap his friends in this scheme to be profitable in this business..
Legality of a business may change from time to time. its getting banned now but may be someday they could come back with a different structure. BUT ETHICALITY THIS BUSINESS DOES NOT STAND ANY GROUNDS. its a ponzi scheme. If you dont want to get in the business of trapping people who are mostly your family , close friends or colleagues please stay away from this..
This business is only for those who can put a price tag on their friendships, on their relations and on trust. if you are not one of them stay away from qnet
listed below are direct sellers of qnet . if you happen to deal with them please be careful. study qnet and its scams before taking any decicion (they usually dont reveal the name of the company, the business model and that it is MLM or direct selling. they only tell it is a digital marketing or business development)
Mumbai
1. Vaishali gore (Also dubai)
2. Vishal mast
3. Pratik parmar
4. Kaustubh moghe
5. Praveen shettigar
6. V c gautam
7. Cs mallika ladi (Sap)
8. Yogesh jangam
9. Rupesh bamne
10. Jyoti parmar
11. Tejashree singh
12. Swati suman singh
13. Ravi kumar chaurasiya
14. Sheela mary
15. Manika bhardwaj
16. Sagar metkari
17. Sarika metkari
18. Prasad jadhav
19. Rakhi jadhav
20. Rohan naik
21. Reema kulkarni
22. Vijay naik
23. Gitesh kulkarni
24. Manju deshmukh
25. Preeti wahalkar
26. Anita naik
Bilaspur
1. Dikshit prashar
Bangalore
1. Pallavi rm (Dodda balapur)
2. Lalitha
3. Ravi
4. Chakra
5. Abhishek sajwan
6. Amarjeet singh
7. Thiruvengadam
8. Koushik r k
9. Pavithra krishna
10. Seena kothari
11. Mukesh
12. Deepika ca
13. Dinesh
14. Karthik
15. Athik
16. Srinivas
17. Naganad
Jaipur
1. Amit singh naruka
2. Sapna singh
3. Ravi jaangid
4. Himanshu verma
5. Praveen
6. Pradhuman
7. Aayushi sharma
8. Dinesh singh
Pune
1. Sameer deshmukh
2. Natasha khandve tumkar
3. Darshan patil
4. Chandni rajchandani
5. Nishikant dhumaal
6. Akhil akhate
7. Jigar vora
8. Amol shinde
9. Mohan ambarnath shelke
10. Mahesh ambarnath shelke
11. Sanketh kothari
12. Ca prateek aggarwal (Pune
13. Ca riya maheshwari (Pune)
14. Nitin garg (Pune/gurugram)
15. Vividha parab (Pune)
16. Mayank bharti
17. Prachi singh (Pune)
18. Vipul aggarwal
19. Nicki rathore (Pune)
20. Ca shaunk atre
21. Ishan atre
22. Kiran andre
23 prakash supekar
24. Abhiram kidey
Delhi
1. Devashish kotnala
2. Saheel karla
3. Priya mungayi
4. Vidya bhushan dewangan
5. Divya thukral sethi
6. Rocky bhatia
7. Akash bhatia
8. Saurabh sethi
9. Praneshwar prasad - husband
10. Kriti jaiswal - wife
11. Prateek jaiswal - brother
12. Kartik jaiswal - brother
13. Prashant jaiwal - cousin
14. Trisha dey
15. Mohit kaushik
16. Rajiv kanaujia
17. Priya mumgayi
18. Nikita sethi
19. Arpit nigam
20. Mohit kaushik
21. Nikita seth
22. Alpana mishra
23. Neel singh
24. Rajiv kanaujiya
25. Uday singh
26. Tufan singh
27. Amit chaudhary
28. Gaurav singh
29. Mukesh bharti
30. Archana rathi
31. Sumit rathi
32. Sumit wadhwa
33. Minakshi bharti
34. Sanjay solomon
35. Mariam solomon (Bala)
36. Mohit bhardwaj
37. Supriya
38. Satya vati (Delhi police)
39. Sunil kumar (Delhi police)
40. Rinku (Delhi police)
41. Shasi kant
42. Dilshad
43. Seema shekhawat
44. Shardul shekhawat
45. Sanjay prajapati
Noida
1. Avnee pandey
Chennai
1. Suriya
2. Ryan
3. Charles
Nagpur
1. Rajesh nawale
2. Manjiri nawale
3. Poonam raut
4. Deepak urkude
Kolkata
1. Sourav mukherjee
2. Amitav kar (Projected very successful)
3. Esha chakrobartty
4. Niladri chakrobartty
5. Titli basu
Others
1. Ritika singla gupta (Chandigarh)
2. Puneet bansal (Chandigarh)
3. Rajeev sikka (Kuwait)
4. Ca sachin garg (Gurugram)
5. Adv jyoti baudaria
6. Swati garg
7. Sanketh kothari
8. Urvashi shah
9. Bibhu prasad
10. Arpit nigam
Mumbai
Geeta Saini
Roma Panigrahi
Now the worst part is my college senior and some other people are involve in this.. My sincere appeal to all of you please refrain from these stupid money making schemes.
In short its not e commerce its a money circulation kind of thing.
they will show you all big dreams !! thanks they haven't arranged the question asking section otherwise I want to ruin the host with my questions . Anyway who invited me , i did with him and he is now not hapy with me . and i am going to my FB also about him so that he can't lure any of my friends and relative. :-(
I was also trapped. I lost my 9 lac Rs to the mumbai team.. Please do not put your hard earned money into qnet. Its a business of fooling people , trust me watch youtube videos of how people in qnet are trained to fool others. Dont lose money like i did
These are the people in mumbai team who sell qnet products.. please be careful if you are dealing with them
Mumbai
1. Vaishali gore (Also dubai)
2. Vishal mast
3. Pratik parmar
4. Kaustubh moghe
5. Praveen shettigar
6. V c gautam
7. Cs mallika ladi (Sap)
8. Yogesh jangam
9. Rupesh bamne
10. Jyoti parmar
11. Tejashree singh
12. Swati suman singh
13. Ravi kumar chaurasiya
14. Sheela mary
15. Manika bhardwaj
16. Sagar metkari
17. Sarika metkari
18. Prasad jadhav
19. Rakhi jadhav
20. Rohan naik
21. Reema kulkarni
22. Vijay naik
23. Gitesh kulkarni
24. Manju deshmukh
25. Preeti wahalkar
26. Anita naik