KOCHI: Life hasn’t been easy for 30-year-old Renjish K P, a plumber of Palluruthy, after Covid dried up his income in the last two years. As he was struggling to make ends meet, he received a friend request on Facebook from a woman identified as Geethu Anil Kumar, who was familiar to him.
As they chatted for a few weeks, the woman explained about a business proposal to him convincing him that if he makes an investment of Rs 5 lakh in the project, it will help him tide over his financial crisis within two months. Though Renjish was hesitant to invest, she convinced him about the project and made him invest Rs 3 lakh.
“It was through FB that I met her. We chatted for several days. After coming to know about my financial issues, she put forward a business project promising me huge returns. She also introduced me to a senior executive of the company and asked me to invest Rs 5 lakh. When I told her that I don’t have the said amount, she told me that I could join the firm by paying Rs 1.5 lakh initially. She collected a total of Rs 3 lakh from me. I raised the money by borrowing from others and now I am in debt. She never told me that it was a multi-level marketing scheme. She duped me saying that it was a proposal to do export and import business,” Renjish told TNIE.
It’s not the case of Renjish alone. A probe by police based on a complaint lodged by Renjish this month against Geethu revealed that several other persons were similarly duped by a racket in connivance with Geethu after promising them huge returns from partnership and investment opportunities in various business projects.
Officials said they are currently probing two cases registered against Geethu Anil Kumar of Palluruthy under IPC Sections 406 and 420 and in both cases, she is facing charges of siphoning off lakhs of rupees from people by hiding that she was operating for a multi-level marketing company. “She could simply convince people about the fake projects and collect money from them. There are other persons involved in the fraud,” a senior police officer said, adding they suspect more people might have fallen prey to her nefarious plot.
“In fact, she was recruiting people for a multi-level company without revealing the details about it,” said the police officer. In the other case registered at Thoppumpady police station, Geethu allegedly convinced a husband and wife about a dealership opportunity of a direct selling company and took Rs 8 lakh from them promising to get them the dealership.
As per the probe details of the police, Geethu promised a dealership of a firm by name Vihaan Direct Selling company and collected a total amount of Rs 8 lakh from them. The complainant and his wife believed the false assurance of Geethu as she was the schoolmate of the complainant’s wife. They alleged that the accused never told them that the business project was of a multi-level marketing company and they would get returns only if he canvassed and made other persons join the company.
Police said that though Geethu moved the sessions court seeking anticipatory bail in the two cases submitting that the complainants joined the multi-level marketing business company after she briefed them and made them fully aware of the company’s MLM activities, the court rejected her bail plea.