The Kochi City police have arrested two persons in connection with the QNet money chain fraud case.
The arrested have been identified as Muhammad Jaleel, a native of Thoppumpady, and Karan P. Savanth of Fort Kochi. The duo, who had been absconding since August this year, was arrested from Kozhikode the other day.
“They kept shifting between Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad to evade arrest. The other day, they organised a business meeting at a luxury hotel in Kozhikode and we closed in on them with the help of the Kozhikode North police,” officials said.
ADVERTISEMENT
During a follow-up raid, the police also seized luxury cars used by the accused. The duo were produced before a magistrate and remanded in custody.
The fraud came to light when the Kochi City police, in August this year, arrested five persons on charges of duping gullible youths by running the banned binary pyramid business model for its multi-level marketing schemes.
Following this, an investigation was launched against 10 others including former world billiards champion Michael Ferreira.
ADVERTISEMENT
Preliminary investigations suggested that the racket had swindled over ₹100 crore from those in Kerala and nearly ₹7,000 crore across the country.
Earlier in 2013, an inquiry by the Economic Offence Wing of the Mumbai police revealed that QNet, a Malaysia-based company, had duped nearly 5 lakh investors across the country. Based on the finding, Ferreira and a few others had been arrested while the registration of the company was cancelled.