Hyderabad: The Central Crime Station sleuths of Hyderabad have booked a criminal case against QNET, Vihaan Direct Selling (India) and others on a complaint filed by a 34-year-old gym trainer, who alleged that he was duped of ₹25,000 on the pretext of a lucrative business opportunity.The complainant, Sardar Sharanpal Singh of Balkampet, alleged that he had recently been looking for rental premises to open a gym when, in the second week of July, he was approached on Instagram by a man identified as Mohamed Fawaz, who claimed to be from the fitness industry.“Claiming that he had other investment opportunities, Fawaz lured me to Bengaluru for meetings with the other accused — Aswin, Vinu D’Cruz and Padma K. They asked me to invest in the multi-level marketing scheme of QNET, which operates in India as Vihaan Direct Selling. Assuring me that I would earn a monthly profit of ₹1 lakh to ₹2 lakh, they asked me to invest ₹7.5 lakh and then ensure that I roped in two more people to join the scheme,” the complainant said.Owing to the persistence of the accused, Singh paid them ₹25,000. Subsequently, he became suspicious after his wife and friends alerted him to multi-level marketing fraud cases involving QNET that were being investigated by the police.On their advice, he approached the CCS and lodged a complaint. The CCS sleuths registered a case against QNET, Vihaan Direct Selling (India) and its representatives under Sections 318(4) (cheating) and 316(2) (criminal breach of trust) of the BNS, along with provisions of the Telangana Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act and the IT Act, on July 16.
