How Amway India bit dust in India

Many people wonder whatever happened to Amway in India when nobody could touch it anywhere in the rest of world. How it was made to bite the dust is an interesting story. Very few people know how a criminal case was filed against Amway India and there are several stories making rounds.

The credit goes first to a police officer who fought against the fraudulent activities of this international crook. The tragic stories of a young software professional and a retired scientist only helped to hammer the last nail on the coffin.

This young professional of Hyderabad is an active, enthusiastic and progressive man in his mid twenties. He fell in a love with a girl belonging to another caste. The parents of the girl were reluctant to give the girl to him due to caste prejudices. Somehow he won over them. This girl is also software professional. Theirs was a happy marriage.

Suddenly, one day the elder sister of the girl entered the happy scene and pressured the girl to become a member of Amway. The girl enthusiastically asked her husband to become a member too. However, after closely studying the business plan of Amway India, the young man told her that this is not their cup of tea. But the girl insisted since it is her beloved sister who introduces it. 

The young man tried to reason with the girl saying that they are software professionals and both are making good money after they started their own firm. There is no point in abandoning the firm and run around their friends and relatives selling these products, he told her. However, the girl was persistent. Heated arguments followed but the young man stayed put.

Then something happened. A criminal case of dowry harassment under Section 498A of IPC was foisted against the young man. He was duly arrested and sent to Central Prison. He found himself much to his disbelief in the company of robbers, extremists and hardcore criminals.

The next morning when he was reading the newspaper he saw a Press statement by the then superintendent of police of Economic Offence Wing of CID Mr. V C Sajjanar appealing to people not to become members of money circulation schemes in general and Amway India in particular. He also stated that a criminal case was filed against Amway India. The young man jumped with joy and asked his father to take him out on bail.

By that time, the Amway India filed a writ petition in the Andhra Pradesh High Court with plea to declare its business model legal and it would not attract the provisions of the Prize Chits & Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978.

The young man filed an implead petition in the Amway India’s writ petition and a retired scientist who was also a victim of Amway India’s crooked business plan also filed another writ petition.

After going through all these petitions, the Andhra Pradesh High Court held that the business plan of Amway India is illegal. Then the Amway India filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court of India which also held that there is no merits in the special leave petition of Amway India and the police have every right to file criminal case against it and now Amway India is facing the criminal case in the Nampally court, Hyderabad.

What happened to this young software professional later? He had a lot of patience to win back his loving wife and both are now happily leading the marriage life. Now there is a new member in their family—their son. Not surprisingly, the in-laws of the young man realized that their son-in-law is right and Amway India is a crook. Their small software firm was taken over by a big firm and they are running it efficiently.