More Sajjanars, Raghuram Reddys, Jayanths, Valsans are needed to tackle crooks

For the first time in the long history of Amway which boasts of its presence in over 60 countries, one IPS officer filed a criminal case against the company for its fraudulent activities. He is none other than V C Sajjanar. Many people wrongly believed that he was against only Amway. In fact, first he broke the back of a product-based money circulation company, Japan Life which duped millions all over the country.

He faced severe criticism and rebuke from his colleagues and politicians at national level. A top opposition leader has brought tremendous pressure on the honest and upright police officer Sajjanar to drop the case against Japan Life. However, he did not relent and pursued the case to take it to its logical end.

Then only he studied the business model of Amway India Enterprises to convince himself whether it is a money circulation scheme or not. After he was convinced he went ahead against the company all over the State as the head of Economic Offences Wing of the CID, Andhra Pradesh. However, he has succeeded in exposing its dubious nature of business model in spite of pressure from many a quarter.

He roped in the victims of Amway in the fight against the global giant which has billions of dollars in its kitty to fight back.  He has succeeded in convincing the Indian judiciary that the business model of Amway is nothing but a banned activity under the provisions of Prize Chits & Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978.

The landmark in this case is the judgement of Andhra Pradesh High Court. The State’s highest court unequivocally and unambiguously stated in its judgement that the Amway India is making easy and quick money in the name of its business model. Not only that the High Court has described the business model, “It is, thus, evident that the whole scheme is so ingeniously conceived that the inducement for aggressive enrollment of new members to earn more and more commission is inherent in the scheme.  By holding out attractive commission on the business turned out by the downline members, the scheme provides for sufficient inducements for its members to chase for the new members in their hot pursuit to make quick/easy money.”

So it is proved beyond reasonable doubt that the company was making easy and quick money which is the main ingredient in the PCMCS Act, 1978. This is not a small achievement to fight against an MNC which could hire the most brilliant lawyers like Soli Sorabjee to argue on its behalf.

Sajjanar was also quick to react when a criminal case was filed against GoldQuest International which promised easy and quick money to its members. Though the case was later transferred to the CID of Andhra Pradesh, he built a case and brought the top brass of the company except Eswaran to the smallest police station in the State for interrogation. Here too he faced tremendous pressure but did not give up.

Dr Kolli Raghuram Reddy, superintendent of police of Prakasam district is another upright police officer to tackle the white collar offenders with an iron hand. He effectively closed down various small and medium crooks who amassed crores of rupees collected from the gullible. He never bowed down to the pressure from various quarters. His uprightness did not give a chance to anyone even to think of approaching him to influence.

The maximum pressure he experienced was while handling the NMart Retail owned by Gopal Mohan Singh Shekhawat of Surat. It was a challenging task for any police officer. He did not mince words to call spade a spade.

Dr Raghuram Reddy has taken lot of pains to arrest the accused in the NMart fraud. It was not an easy task. Gopal Shekhawat has already amassed several hundreds of crores of rupees from the public and out to purchase anyone who crosses his path. In spite of the pressure from various quarters he did not budge. Gopal Shekhawat is such an arrogant person, he believed that he could do anything with money. He jumped the bail and never reported to the court. He allegedly ‘purchased’ the anticipatory bail from a court. Later, the Andhra Pradesh High Court cancelled that bail. By braving a lot of pressure from the powers-that-be, Dr Raghuram Reddy brought the accused Gopal Shekhawat to Ongole and put him behind bars.

We need such officers who do not budge to anything but to the law of the land.

Jayanath Jayanthan is another tiger. He went after several white collar offenders before chasing the multinational criminal company Amway India. Without bothering the bickering, Jayanath, popularly known as JJ, raided the godowns of Amway and seized products worth Rs. 2.5 crore and booked the higher-ups of the Amway India. Though he was asked to take care of some other important issues, he did not leave the trail.

Valsan, the SP of Economic Offences Wing of CID of Kerala, who has been handed over the Amway India criminal case, has taken the case to its logical conclusion by arresting the honchos of Amway India. Probably, he might have gone through the tremendous pressure in discharging his duties.

We need more such daredevil officers to uphold the law of the land.

We, the members of Corporate Frauds Watch, salute the heroes.