OTV Impact: Crime Branch EOW Arrests 3 Persons In Odisha In 'QNet Fraud'

Bhubaneswar: After a probe into the alleged multi-crore QNet scam, the special Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Crime Branch on Tuesday arrested three senior partners of Vihaan Direct Selling (India) Pvt Ltd from Bhubaneswar.

The accused have been identified as Sarat Parida of Bramheswarpatna, Debabrata Harichandan of Chandrasekharpur and Chandan Mahalik of Jagannath Vihar area. All the three senior partners of QNet and Vihaan Direct Selling (India) Pvt Ltd have been arrested under section 406, 420,467,468, 471 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code and section 4, 5, 6 of Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (banning) Act, 1978.

Earlier, it was alleged that the company duped several investors worth Rs 5,000 crore. OTV had reported about the scam in its investigative report published in September 2019. It was alleged that the directors and partners through India franchise –Vihaan Direct Selling (India) Pvt Ltd were engaged in illegal money circulation schemes in the guise of direct selling and multi-level marketing and collected crores of rupees from investors in Odisha.

Preliminary investigation reveals that all the three arrested officials of the company entered into a criminal conspiracy with the directors of QNet through its Indian Franchise- Vihaan Direct Selling (India) Pvt Ltd- and lured people to invest in the scheme promising high returns.