Police arrest 1 more in Speak Asia scam

City police today arrested one more key person in connection with Speak Asia's multi level marketing scam, taking the total number of arrests in the case to six.

City police on Thursday arrested one more key person in connection with Speak Asia's multi level marketing scam, taking the total number of arrests in the case to six.

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"Rahul Shah, vice president of Tulsient Information System Pvt Ltd, a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) unit that looked after Speak Asia's financial affairs, has been arrested from the city," said Additional Police Commissioner (EOW) Rajvardhan Sinha.

Tulsient looked after the financial affairs of Speak Asia and also played an important role in the controversial company's online surveys, he added. Manoj Kumar, CEO of Speak Asia, is a partner in Tulsient and is wanted, police said.

The city police had recently arrested Speak Asia's Chief Operating Officer (COO) in India Tarak Bajpai, financial manager Ravi Khanna, technicians Rajeev Malhotra and Rais Khan and panelist Deepankar Sarkar and all of them were remanded in police custody till August 12.

According to police, the company had promised lucrative returns through a multi marketing pyramid model. The firm allegedly duped over 12 lakh investors, also called panelists or members, to the tune of Rs 1,300 crore by assuring them commission if they introduced new members.

Meanwhile, under the banner of Speak Asia Panelist Association, which claims to have support of 1.5 to 2 lakh people, members of Speak Asia will gather at Azad Maidan in south Mumbai on Friday to show solidarity with the company. They stated that the company had not duped them.