HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad Central Crime Station (CCS) has arrested six persons from four states for allegedly operating Ignite, a multi-level marketing (MLM) company that police described as the latest rebranding of the controversial QNet network.
The arrested accused were identified as Oneal Gupta, Dinesh Kumar Saahil, Priyanshu Saxena, Praveen Kumar Dakalia, Paritosh Kumar Dakalia and Riyaz.
Addressing the media on Thursday, Hyderabad Commissioner of Police VC Sajjanar said timely intervention by law enforcement agencies within 18 days of the formation of Ignite’s Indian entity prevented a potential fraud of nearly Rs 5,000 crore. Sajjanar said Ignite was the fourth avatar of the network over three decades.
Following three FIRs registered at Panjagutta, Kacheguda and SR Nagar police stations, investigators identified Ignite as an offshoot of the QNet Group and transferred the case to CCS. Police said Ignite (joinignite.com), headquartered in Hong Kong, functioned as an MLM scheme and shared operational links with previous QNet entities. The top recruiters in Ignite’s India network, including Oneal Gupta, had earlier worked with QNet.
Its Indian arm, Indi Konnect Ventures Private Limited, was incorporated on May 18, just 18 days before the first FIR was registered. According to investigators, the company was established by former senior QNet leaders now associated with Ignite.
Police said the company’s Memorandum of Association explicitly provides for commissions, bonuses and rewards for recruiting direct sellers, fitting the definition of a money circulation scheme under the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978. Investigators also found that its domain, indikonnect.in, was registered nine days before the company was incorporated, indicating a pre-planned operation.
Sajjanar said a 458-page report submitted in 2012 had described GoldQuest and QuestNet as Ponzi schemes and flagged the network as a potential national security concern because many victims included defence personnel, government employees and their families.
