SpeakAsia director plea dismissed.
Justice Samudrala Govindarajulu of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Tuesday dismissed the bail petitions of the Speak Asia Online Pvt Ltd director, Rajiv Melhotra, and four of its employees. The CID of AP registered a case against the company for running a business of money circulation in India without any authorization or licence. The CID in its FIR alleged that the company has so far collected more than Rs 2,200 crore from Indian citizens out of which over Rs 600 crore has been transferred to Singapore.
The company moved the High Court against the FIR, but the court dismissed its plea and also vacated the stay on the arrest of the directors, representatives, officials and employees of the company. Apprehending an arrest in view of the dismissal of their quash petition, the director and four of the company employees filed anticipatory bail petitions.
The prosecution opposed the bail petitions contending that the arrest of the company director and other accused will help the investigation to unearth the quantum of funds collected by the company from the public.
Two weeks for Gali on CBI plea
Justice Raja Elango on Tuesday granted two weeks time to Gali Janardhan Reddy and his brother Srinivas Reddy to respond to a plea by the CBI challenging the order of a CBI court that refused the application of the investigating agency to extend the custody of the duo to continue its interrogation in illegal mining case. On September 13 the special court granted six days custody of the brothers to the CBI which elapsed on September 19. Then the CBI sought extension of the custody and the special court rejected its application.
The CBI contended that it has at least one more week of custody of the duo to get more details of various aspects of the illegal mining case. The CBI told the judge that it had sought 15 days custody, but the lower court granted only six days, which is not sufficient to elicit information from the accused.
HCA plea in HC adjourned
Justice Raja Elango on Tuesday adjourned the plea of the Hyderabad Cricket Association to Thursday. The HCA challenged the order of the ACB Court to probe into its affairs. Mr Shivlal Yadav, Mr Arshad Ayub and other HCA office bearers challenged the ACB Court order.
DECCAN CHRONICLE
Amway & SpeakAsia
I guess many of you are already aware about Amway. It was the first international MLM company to hit Indian market. I am not comparing Amway with Speak Asia in any way as the business model is different in both the companies. I am just bringing the fact that Amway has already gone through the scenario which Speak Asia is facing today.
Multi Level Marketing is a legal business not only in India but abroad as well. But the fact is that people are not aware of its working concepts.
Amway was first to hit Indian market some 13 years ago (I guess) and it is still in the market.
Amway has several times been accused of being a pyramid scheme. A 1979 FTC investigation in the United States, a 1997 Belgian court and a 2008 court judgement in the United Kingdom all dismissed these claims.
In September 2006, following a public complaint, Andhra Pradesh state police (CID) (Most of the complaints are in this state I guess) initiated raids and seizures against Amway distributors in the state, and submitted a petition against them, claiming the company violated the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (banning) Act. They shut down all offices of firm Amway, and Arijit Saha writes that “with it the fate of 80,000 distributors of the company has been indefinitely sealed“. – Source (Wikipedia)
The same is happening with Speak Asia at the moment. I don’t want to comment whether the company is right or wrong but the fact is that the fate of 2 million Speak Asia panelists has been sealed.
Govt. or Court should give these kind of cases to “Fast Track Courts” so that the judgement may come bit early. People are desperate with no clue whatsoever regarding the cases and proceedings. Every Speak Asia Panelist wants company to start its operations as soon as possible but the fate of the company is in the hands of Govt and Court.
If for any reason, company fails to satisfy the RBI, no doubt the business will be closed but if it satisfy the RBI, chances are that the company may start its operations in India again.
The only person crushed in between the Govt and the Company is the “Panelist” of Speak Asia.
Custody of Sanjeev Dandona and Nayan Khandor extended till 12th oct.
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| Sanjeev Dandona |
An official from the Economic Offence Wings (EOW), who preferred anonymity, told Moneylife, “Their custody has been extended till 12th October.”
Mr Dandona was arrested by the EOW on 29th September, after it was learnt that he was the proxy owner of Kritanj Management & Allied Services and is linked with Speak Asia. Kritanj Management is the master distributor of Singapore-based Haren Ventures Pte Ltd (HVP) for e-zines in India. Mr Dandona is also alleged to be advising HVP and Tulsient Tech Pvt Ltd and also transferring funds collected by Speak Asia agents to Singapore.
Just the day after the arrest of Mr Dandona, it was revealed that the online surveys, which Speak Asia used to claim (and its agents used to believe), were actually created not in Singapore, but in Mumbai. This was revealed following a confession from Nayan Khandor, a Web designer and director of Dadar (central Mumbai)-based Brand Salon, that his firm was active in creating the online surveys for Speak Asia.
According to an investigation officer, Mr Khandor confessed that he was given the task of creating online surveys and designing the e-magazine by Speak Asia's chief executive Manoj Kumar Sharma and has been involved in this job since February 2010. The material seized from Mr Khandor’s office also indicates his close relation with Speak Asia. He was arrested on 30th September.
When asked about the investigations, the official added, “They are being examined on various counts. Dandona has given some leads relating to the top bosses such as Manoj Kumar and Haren Kaur of Speak Asia. Nayan was just responsible for the designs, so not much has been revealed from him.”
Moneylife had reported earlier that Mr Dandona has confessed that Speak Asia was running a Ponzi scheme.
Earlier in 2002, Mr Dandona was charge-sheeted by the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) along with seven other people, including three officials from the Transport Department of Delhi Government for allegedly issuing forged permits for new auto-rickshaws. Last year in May, Justice Vipin Gandhi of the Delhi High Court dismissed Mr Dandona’s petition saying, "Prima facie, his involvement appears to be deep-rooted. It cannot be said that on the basis of the allegations contained in the charge-sheet the petitioner WP (Crl.) 586/2010 Page 15 of 16 may not have been involved in the criminal acts attributed to him. Consequently, I see no merit in this petition and dismiss the same.”
