The State Crime Investigation Department (CID) on Friday arrested four persons in Mumbai for their alleged involvement in the speakasiaonline fraud. A CID team went to Mumbai on Thursday and picked up the accused --Ravi Khanna, Director Seamless Outsourcing, Sheikh Rayees, a technical officer who was dealing with speakasia website, Dipankar, distributor-cum-franchisee of the firm Kritanj Management and Allied Services, Raipur and Rahul Shah, vice-president of Tulsiyat Technologies Limited. All the arrested will be produced in court in Vijayawada on Sunday.
It may be recalled that Corporate Frauds Watch lodged a complaint with the CID against speakasiaonline stating that the fraudulent is indulging in money circulation scheme in the name of conducting surveys.
CID officials said that the money collected from the subscribers of speakasiaonline would be sent to Seamless and Tulsiyat companies which in turn would send the amount to speakasia's head office in Singapore. The role of Sheikh Rayees was to enroll subscribers, they said.
After producing the accused in the court, the CID may seek their custody to further interrogate the quartet about speakasia's operations. The CID has registered a case against the four under Section 120B and 420 of IPC and Section 4,5,6 of Prize Chits & Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978.
The speakasiaonline is accused of collecting Rs, 22.65 billion (Rs. 2265 crore) towards subscriptions fee by enrolling about 19 lakh people across the country, including Andhra Pradesh. The CID registered a case against the company in June this year. Speakasia started its business through its website without any authorisation from the Central government and made false promises to people. The company has already transferred over Rs. 6 billion to their personal accounts in Singapore.
The CID is ready to get the COO of the company Tarak Bajpai, arrested earlier by the Mumbai Police some time ago, to Vijayawada on a prisoner transit warrant. He is presently recuperating in a hospital after undergoing an operation.
The CID is likely to seek the help of Interpol to track down speakasia Chief Executive Officer Ms Harender Kaur who is said to be either in Singapore or Dubai.
3 comments:
According to one Indian newspaper, CID has already requested Interpol's assistance:
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/speakasia-case-cid-to-seek-interpols-help/180387-60-121.html
Shyam,
Do you have any information about the PIL filed by AISPA in Mumbai? They are claiming the government has requested continuance of the case for 2 weeks, which means the government has no case against them (ridiculous, I know).
--KC
Shyam
Here in Mumbai, the Economic Offence Wing officers did not turn up in the court on 7th Sept hearing date. The EOW lawyer told the court that EOW did not find any evidence that SpeakAsia is a scam and the judge then told the lawyer to ask EOW to sit with SpeakAsia officials and decide how to constructively make payments to panelist. In short EOW lost the case. SpeakAsia is preparing for registering in India and starting a Exit option for disgruntled panelist who want to discontinue their membership, however this exit option is also skewed to benefit SpeakAsia as panelist who opt out might not get anything as it says if you have participated in any activities and earned reward points that will be deducted from the joining fees.
I know that this case has been lost by EOW intentionally as a Senior Panelist has told me that SpeakAsia has managed settings with EOW to give SpeakAsia a clean chit in turn for a monetary gain.
I hope this does not happen with CID Andhra.
Sam
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