Vihaan, acting on behalf of QNet, lures people from the middle class, who are in search of easy money in a short time, by offering them memberships at rates ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh. Once they join the group, the members have to sell healthcare and wellness products and promote tourist packages to resorts owned by QNet in the name of Vmultilevel marketing and Resorts abroad.
However, the members are provided with products and packages only after they enroll at least two more members and they in turn enroll two more each. That means, a member will have access to the products or package selling only after he or she gets at least six persons in their chain. This sort of activity is called multilevel marketing and is banned in India since 1978.
Ferreira, who won the Padma Bhushan, the second highest civilian award, after winning a series of world amateur and open billiards championships in 1983, is considered to be a key link between QNet’s Indian franchise Vihaar Direct Selling and its parent company, QNet, in Hong Kong. Vihaan’s operations are carried through Dubai and Malaysia.
Ironically, Ferreira, 79, has been presented with other coveted awards like Arjuna and Dronacharya and Maharashtra government’s Shiv Chhatrapati honour. Ferreira has been arrested and put in Mumbai jail since 8 October. Mumbai accounts for a large number of victims who were duped by QNet, through Vihaan. Next are Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi and Hyderabad, City Crime Station (CCS) DCP Avinash Mohanty told The Sunday Guardian.
The Hyderabad police has been receiving complaints from the public that they were cheated by QNet agents. Initially, the newly enrolled members are taken to foreign locations like Dubai and Kuala Lumpur for short stays in the name of training and orientation. Once they are back, there is no communication from the agents and the members’ requests for either products or packages for selling go unanswered, the complainants said.
The Hyderabad police first registered a case against Vihaan Direct Selling India Private Limited in October 2015 after Suman Ghosh, a 31-year-old assistant manager with HSBC Bank complained that he had lost around Rs 16 lakh paid as entry fee to QNet. After that, several such complaints were filed. Then the cops arrested four local agents working for Vihaan—Srinath Konda, Prasanna Kumar Reddy, Kanchana Reddy and B. Dhan Raj. These four agents talked about their higher ups operating from Mumbai and Hong Kong. Besides Ferreira, the cops got to know of three others—Malcom Nozer Desai, 45, Magarlal V. Balaji, 40, and Srinivasa Rao Vanka, 47.
As all of them are in the custody of Mumbai police, the Hyderabad cops filed a transit warrant and brought them to Hyderabad on Tuesday night. But the billiards champion moved the Hyderabad High Court and got a stay order on any further investigation in Hyderabad. As a result, the Hyderabad police had to take him back to Mumbai jail on Thursday. However, DCP Avinash told this newspaper that the police would make every effort to bring back Ferreira and interrogate him. There are also efforts by the police to track and arrest QNet co-founder Vijay Eswaran who looks after the Indian operations.