‘Spiritual guru’ held for duping followers of Rs 60 crore
HYDERABAD: In yet another case of Multi-Level Marketing scam, a spiritual guru has been held for duping his followers to the tune of Rs 60 crore. E Kumar Girish Singh, a 34-year-old spiritual guru popular on various Telugu news channels, was arrested along with his brother on Monday by the LB Nagar cyber crime police. Founder of the Advaita Spiritual Recharge Centre for Excellence (ASRCE) as well as a life coach, Girish and his brother E Dileep Singh(29) have been accused of owning at least 30 shell companies used in the fraud.
Based on a complaint by K Swapna, a resident of Nagole after she was cheated of Rs 21.78 lakh in a multi-level marketing scheme named ‘Dream Bridz’, police registered a case under AP Protection of Depositors from Financial Establishment Act and Price chits and money circulation schemes (Banning) Act. The MLM scheme was touted as a social business network, that would help in earning huge profits within a short period. The scheme was proposed as one wherein one had to purchase user IDs, starting from Rs 1,100-Rs 66,000. It was promised that these user IDs will receive few advertisements in e-mail inbox, that have to be clicked and viewed.
During investigation it was revealed that Girish was a devotee of one guru Bala Tripura Sundari, and used to collect Rs 10,000 - Rs 2 lakh per candidate promising that the money would be invested in businesses. Police seized three mobile phones, a laptop, five Indian passports and three cars from him.