2 arrested in connection with Speak Asia scam

The Economic Offence Wing of city police has arrested two people this week in connection with the Speak Asia scam. Renu Sharma, 55 and Arun Rai 35, both associated with Tulsiyat technology private limited, a franchise company of Speak Asia were arrested for the Rs 2,276 crore online marketing fraud. While Renu is the wife of key accused Manoj Sharma, director of Tulsiyat, there was a lookout notice issued for Manoj, a Nagpur resident. He was arrested from Kolkata when he was trying to flee to Singapore. Both the accused have been remanded in police custody till October 13. In July 2011, Navneet Khosla had filed a complaint stating that he had invested Rs 11,000 in the firm that had promised a return of R52,000. The modus operandi of the company was to make people invest in the company, who were called panellists. Each panelist would be given one yearly online survey form to be filled up that would help him or her gain points, and if those turn out to be accurate, the person ends up getting Rs 52,000.

The EOW had in past arrested over 30 persons and had also filed a 7,500-page chargesheet against 21 people. As per police orders, more than 250 bank accounts that contain around R142 crore have been frozen.