Two convicted of running money circulation scheme after 12 years
After nearly 12 years of being booked for running a money circulation scheme, two directors of a Sector-26 based company were convicted under the prize chit and money circulation scheme (banning) act and penalised for 30,000 each.Chief judicial magistrate Anubhav Sharma, on June 13, had convicted Jasdeep Singh Bains and Jaspal Sohi, both directors of Online Job Work. Com Private Limited, Sector 26, Chandigarh.
After nearly 12 years of being booked for running a money circulation scheme, two directors of a Sector-26 based company were convicted under the prize chit and money circulation scheme (banning) act and penalised for 30,000 each.
Chief judicial magistrate Anubhav Sharma, on June 13, had convicted Jasdeep Singh Bains and Jaspal Sohi, both directors of Online Job Work. Com Private Limited, Sector 26, Chandigarh.
Another accused in the case, Amandeep Bains, was declared a proclaimed offender (PO), while three others booked by the police in this case, Jagdish Arora, Vive k Arora and Narinder, were acquitted as the prosecution failed to prove allegations against them.
The police had filed 20 challans against the accused.
“The court finding two directors guilty under the prize chit and money circulation scheme (banning) act imposed a fine of 30,000 each. However, they were acquitted of charges of cheating and forgery,” said Harish Bhardwaj, one of the defence counsels.
The court, while convicting Jasdeep and Jaspal, held, “The accused were not engaged in any of the business in the name of trading or manufacturing, but were only benefiting from the act of managing the scheme. There is no denial that the scheme aimed to enrich its members without any other act than adding more members. It certainly falls in the definition of ‘money circulation scheme’ as defined under section (2) (c) of the Chit Fund Act 1978.”
However, the accused, also facing charges of cheating, were acquitted as the prosecution failed to prove the allegations.
THE CASE
UT police had registered a case in November, 2002, against directors of Sector-26 based Online Job Work Com. Private Limited, Jasdeep Singh Bains, Jaspal Sohi, Amandeep Bains, Jagdish Arora, Vivek Arora and Narinder. All of them were booked for cheating and under various sections of Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act.
A case was registered on the complaint of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) accusing the company violating the Prize, Chit and Money Circulation Banning Act.
As per the complaint, Online Job Work Com. Private Limited was enrolling members for the purpose of marketing products or services of some foreign concerns and companies. Alleging cheating by the company, the complaint also mentioned that it was ‘misleading and deceiving’ gullible public.
MODUS OPERANDI
As per allegations, the company was running a multi-level marketing scheme in which a business associate had to enroll further business associates under him against a payment of 16,500 per enrolment being the product cost, training and registration charges.
For each business associate being enrolled, the business associate got a commission of 5,500 from the company and the incentive kept increasing.
The company was neither rendering any worthwhile service, nor selling any product for the hefty amount of incentive for enrolling new members.It was mainly alluring people by offering hefty commission and enrolling members by running some pyramid scheme with some camouflages, the complaint had alleged.