The Economic Offences Wing of the Crime Branch, Kozhikode, conducted raids and seized goods worth Rs 3 crore from offices of three multi-level marketing companies operating here on Monday.
According to Crime Branch officials, cases have been registered against these companies for violating the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978.
The police officials said that raids were conducted at the offices of Modicare in Kathrikkadavu, K Link in Palarivattom and DXN on Old Railway Station Road.
Sunil Augustine, manager of K Link, has been arrested. Regil, a native of Thalassery, who is the manager of Modicare in Kerala too has been arrested. The representatives of DXN, a Malaysia-based company having its presence in over 40 countries, are out of station, and they will soon be taken into custody.
The Crime Branch officials seized goods worth `1.12 crore from DXN offices, while goods worth `1.10 crore and `37 lakh were seized from the offices of Modicare and K Link, respectively.
After examining the documents, the Crime Branch has learnt that DXN conducted a business of `13 crore in the last one year. K Link and Modicare conducted a business of `6 crore and `4 crore, respectively, in 2012. A case against DXN has been registered with the Kasaba police station, Kozhikode, while cases have been registered with the Kozhikode Town police station and the Kannur police station against K Link and Modicare, respectively. The Crime Branch has sealed the offices after examining the documents and goods stocked here.
P A Valsan, Superintendent, Economic Offences Wing, Kozhikode, has said that operations of these companies had been monitored for the last several months, and that cases were registered as they received evidence that against the company for violating the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978. “These company sell products like cosmetics, food supplements, kitchen products, medicine, garments and agricultural products at exaggerated price. Each agent has to sell the products by adding two persons to his network. He gets a commission when the two persons add more to their network,” he said.
The accused have been taken to Kozhikode. They will be produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Kozhikode.