QNet denies allegations in charge sheet

VDSI plan to challenge the allegations by police's economic offences wing in a court charge sheet

Online marketing company QNet and its sub-franchisee, Vihaan Direct Selling India (VDSI), plan to challenge the allegations by the city police's economic offences wing (EOW) in a court charge sheet last week.

"We will exercise our rights against the conspiracy and false allegations," said a QNet spokesperson.

According to the charge sheet, a Gurpreet Singh Anand had filed a complaint against two independent representatives of QNet for selling a fraudulent product to his wife, Parmeet Kaur, which they claimed would help cure their son's brain ailment.

"QNet and VDSI refute this claim. The company has submitted documents to show Parmeet Kaur never purchased the Bio Disc product as alleged. In fact, she placed an order for an online education product from the QNet India portal and subsequently cancelled this order. Hence, no financial transaction ever took place, was the company's defence.

QNet has been under investigation since August 2013. Two shareholders of VDSI and two ex-directors are in judicial custody in Mumbai, having surrendered to the EOW on September 30. It has been investigated under various statutes. "The company has claimed non-applicability of some of the statutes to its business model and feels it is being victimised in a way," the spokesperson added.

The company plans to challenge the applicability of certain laws, such as the MPID Act and the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act.

"QNet reiterates that it is a legitimate direct selling company and does not solicit any investments, take deposits or offer any jobs to its independent representatives. The question of running a ponzi scheme or an investment scheme does not arise. All products are sold through the company's e-commerce platform. Those who enrol as independent representatives have the opportunity to earn commissions from product sales," the spokesperson said.