Three out of the six Bollywood actors who were served notices by the Cyberabad Police in connection with the QNet scam have responded to the police notice. Actors Shahrukh Khan, Anil Kapoor and Boman Irani on Thursday responded to notice regarding their role in promoting the schemes.
Three other actors, Vivek Oberoi, Pooja Hegde and Jackie Shroff, have ignored the second notice sent by the Economic Offences Wing of Cyberabad probing the multi-level marketing scheme. The deadline to reply to the police was on August 1.
Police have registered 38 cases and have arrested 70 persons in connection with the case and served notices to over 500 persons, including Tollywood actor Allu Sirish and cricketer Yuvraj Singh and other celebrities. They have all been asked to explain their role in the MLM scam by a Hong Kong-based company.
"Notices will be served to the three actors for the third time, but we will ask them to make a personal visit to record their statement. If they do not respond, it would result in legal action against them,” an official told Deccan Chronicle. The police are at the moment tight-lipped about the response by the three actors. Attempts to get a response from the officials investigating the case proved futile.
The Cyberabad police have also written to various investing agencies seeking assistance as the investigation. The Enforcement Directorate has also been requested to probe the money laundering and tax evasion by QNet.The Income Tax department has been requested to share details on the filings of returns by the firm. The police have also sought details from the Reserve Bank of India if the frim had necessary permissions to operate its investments schemes collecting funds from the public. The police have also written to the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), Registrar of Companies (RoC) and GST wings, reported TNIE.
The company had in February denied any association with the celebrities, actors and cricketers who had promoted their brand. The multinational company, which operates in India through its franchisee Vihaan Direct Selling, is accused of duping 20 lakh investors by running an illegal money circulation scheme and laundering Rs 20,000 crore. Vihaan claims they have approximately 6 lakh Indian customers registered in its database with audited revenues for 2017-2018 at Rs 624 crore. QNet in their release said neither it nor Vihaan was banned by any court of law in India.