Hyderabad, June 11 (IANS) Hyderabad police on Thursday said that it has busted a multi-level marketing racket with the arrest of six persons, preventing a potential Rs 5,000 crore fraud.

Police Commissioner V.C. Sajjanar told a news conference that to safeguard the public from financial exploitation, the city police executed ‘Operation Ignite Crackdown,’ successfully arresting 6 individuals across four states– Kerala, West Bengal, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh.

The operation was aimed at dismantling the Indian network of ‘IGNITE,’ a rebranded entity identified as the latest continuation of the infamous QNET money circulation scheme, he said.

The Commissioner said that the police acted with remarkable speed, intervening just 18 days after the entity was formed in India. This swift action is estimated to have prevented a massive financial fraud amounting to Rs 5,000 crore.

Investigations by the Central Crime Station have confirmed that the scheme involves the same principals who previously operated the banned QNET and Vihaan Direct Selling networks. This marks the fourth iteration of the same deceptive business model over the past three decades: Gold Quest transitioned to QuestNet, followed by QNET, and now IGNITE.

With three victim complaints already filed and FIRs registered, the Hyderabad City Police has sent a strong message against such predatory money circulation rackets. This proactive operation underscores the department’s commitment to tracking and neutralising fraudulent schemes before they can victimise the public on a large scale, the Commissioner said.

Three complaints were received between June 5 and 6 from three victims in Hyderabad who had paid between Rs 61,639 and Rs 63,899 each — a total of Rs 1.87 lakh — after being recruited through different channels: a WhatsApp approach from an Africa-based number, an online Zoom presentation, and a face-to-face approach at Hyderabad Central Mall.

According to police, despite the different approaches, all three victims were directed to pay into the same bank account belonging to Parasnath Mercantile Pvt. Ltd, Branch Bhowanipore, which confirmed a single, coordinated collection infrastructure. While the three FIRs were initially filed separately, the investigating officers immediately flagged a potential resurgence of a new QNet entity and the case was transferred to the CCS detective department by the office of the Police Commissioner for initiating an investigation under relevant provisions.

The arrested persons are Oneal Gupta, IGNITE Team Leader/Recruiter, Noida; Dinesh Kumar Saahil, Director, Indi Konnect Ventures Pvt. Ltd., Kakod Village, Bulandshahr, UP; Priyanshu Saxena, Director, Indi Konnect Ventures, UP; Praveen Kumar Dakalia, Director of M/s Parasnath Mercantile Private Limited, Kolkata; Paritosh Kumar Dakalia, Director of Parasnath Mercantile Private Limited; and Riyaz, Field Recruiter, Kerala.

As per initial investigation, IGNITE (joinignite.com) is a multi-level marketing scheme headquartered at Hong Kong — the same city that has served as the control centre for this network across all its avatars. Its founder, Pathman Senathirajah, is named as an accused in the Mumbai Economic Offences Wing FIR (Rs.425 crore) and the Tamil Nadu GoldQuest FIR, and is currently evading arrest from Hong Kong. Its Managing Director, Adly Hassan, was QNET’s top India earner for years, police added.

–IANS

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