M A I N   N E W S

Thousands duped of Rs 40 crore
Manoj Kumar
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 4
Thousands of youth across the country have been duped of about Rs 40 crore by two city-based Internet solution companies — Best Internet Solutions and Onlinejobwork.com. The police apprehends that the total amount involved in the alleged racket could cross Rs 100 crore after thorough investigations.

Though the police registered a case of conspiracy, misappropriation of public money and cheating against the directors of these companies last month, it believes that it would be almost impossible to recover the amount due to legal wrangles and practical problems. The police is finding it difficult to proceed further since the victims are spread all over the country, and are not forthcoming in providing details.

The police has received complaints from hundreds of youth against these companies. The Punjab and Haryana High Court has rejected the bail petition of J.D. Bains, one of the directors of Onlinejobwork.com Pvt Ltd. Two other directors, Kulwant Singh and Amrish, are absconding. The police is likely to declare them proclaimed offenders soon.

The regional office of the Reserve Bank of India here had rung alarm bells last year when it brought to the notice of the Chandigarh Administration that some companies were collecting crores of rupees as registration fee from the gullible youth. They were promising them “to earn millions of rupees as commission” if they recruited members to do easy jobs on the Internet or to sell special products in the market. But after some initial investigations, the police had reportedly closed the inquiry due to “unknown” reasons.

Consequently, these two companies continued to flourish right under the nose of the Chandigarh Administration and the Punjab and Haryana Governments. The police investigations have revealed that about two years ago, J.D. Bains and Sukhminder Sandhu, one of his relatives had set up an Internet solution company under the name of ArtrexEcomm Pvt. Ltd. at Patiala. After collecting about Rs 1 crore there, it shifted their operations to Sector 34, Chandigarh and started working under the banner of two new companies.

One of the former employees of Best Internet Solutions disclosed that the company had started another website, Netkhazana.com. As per the modus operandi, these companies had opened their offices in all the major towns in North India and places like Hyderabad and Bangalore. They would ask the youth to pay Rs 16,500 to Rs 18,000 as registration fee, promising them an IT job in foreign companies while sitting at home.

Mr P.S. Aggarwal, a resident of Panchkula, claimed that he was promised a monthly salary of Rs 8,000 per month by Onlinejobwork.com for just “typing” on a particular website."I was assured to get a hefty commission if I recruited new members for the company. I worked for about two months, but was not paid even a penny as I was told that my work was not up to the mark."

Mr Vijay Pal Singh, DSP, claimed that Best Internet Solutions had registered 600 fake IDs and Onlinejobwork.com had registered 364 fake IDs. Consequently, the promised profit margin of Rs 5,500 at the first stage, Rs 12,00 at the next stage and even Rs 500 at the third stage was gobbled by them.

He said the analysis of the computer data had revealed that about 18,000 persons had deposited about Rs 26 crore as registration fee, with Best Internet Solutions and about 8,500 persons had deposited about Rs 12.5 crore with Onlinejobwork.com during the past few months.

How the youth were duped

• Every youth was asked to pay Rs 16,500 to Rs 18,000 as registration fee.
• The Company promised to pay Rs 5,500 per person if he recruited three new members, and Rs 500 as commission if additional members were recruited by his clients.
• District and state dealerships were sold for Rs 20 lakh to Rs 30 lakh each.
• Most of the registered youth were not paid even Rs 500 per month.