QNet case: Pre-arrest bail plea of Ferreira, 4 others rejected

Admin   |   09 May, 2016   |   767   |   3980

In a setback to former World Billiards champion Michael Ferreira, the Bombay high court on Friday rejected the anticipatory bail application filed by him and four others in connection with the multi-crore QNet scam.

The prosecution’s case is that the accused opened a few companies, QNet being one of them, in April 2012. In one of the companies, Ferreira held 80 per cent of the shares and a Malcholm Desai had a 20 per cent stake while others such as Magaral Balaji and Shinivas Vanka were appointed as directors of one of their companies —Vihaan Direct Selling (I) Pvt Ltd.

The special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat told the court that the accused were selling products like biodisk, gold coins, holiday packages and chi pendants etc. According to the police, there were some companies selling all these products since 2003 but they had to stop their business because the police had received complaints of them cheating consumers. These companies, however, allegedly continued their business by operating under new names.

The complaint of cheating in the QNet case was registered after one Gurpreet Singh Anand, approached the police after losing Rs 30,000. During investigation the police found that nearly 90,000 members were allegedly cheated by the applicants and other accused and the victims suffered loss of around Rs 425 crores. Further investigation revealed that around five lakh people had become members of the company and were cheated and hence the misappropriation and money laundering was above the tune of Rs 1,000 crores.

On the other hand, lawyers appearing on behalf of accused argued that the applicants are innocent. Neither have they cheated anybody nor committed any offence and are being falsely implicated in the case. Defence also alleged that the complainant is allegedly a motivated person who has lodged complaint against the applicants due to business rivalry.

The applicants’ lawyers further contended that the applicants are in the business of direct marketing which is legally permitted in all over the world. They alleged that the police is selective in investigation and has not recorded statements of people who have earned profits and the company also has a refund policy under which nearly Rs 100 crore has been refunded to the members.

After hearing arguments, Justice Mirdula Bhatkar observed, “I am of the view that they (police) need to investigate properly and more effectively to find out the money trail and from where the products are manufactured.” The judge also said that by this deceitful inducement large number of people are trapped in this “moneytree planting” business and rejected the pre-arrest bail application.