Speak Asia online fraud: Four officials held

HYDERABAD: The state Crime Investigation Department (CID) on Friday arrested four persons in Mumbai for their alleged involvement in the Speak Asia online fraud.A CID team went to Mumbai on Thursday and picked up the accused— Ravi Khanna, director of Seamless Outsourcing, Sheikh Rayees, a technical officer who was dealing with Speak Asia website, Dipankar, distributor-cum-franchisee of the firm Kritanj Management and Allied Services, Raipur, and Rahul Shah, vice-president of Tulsiyat Technologies Limited. All the arrested will be produced in court in Vijayawada on Saturday.CID sources told Express that the money collected from subscribers of Speak Asia Online Limited, would be sent to Seamless and Tulsiyat companies which in turn would send the amount to Speak Asia’s head office in Singapore. The role of Sheikh Rayees was to enrol subscribers, sources said.“Since the complaint was lodged in Vijayawada, the accused would be produced  in court there,” a CID official said. After producing the four arrested in  court, the CID will seek their police custody to further interrogate the quartet about Speak Asia’s operations.A case has been registered against the four under Sections 120 B and 420 of IPC and Section 4, 5 and 6 of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Scheme (Banning) Act, 1978.The Speak Asia Online company was accused of collecting Rs. 2,265 crore towards subscription fee by enrolling about 19 lakh people across the country, including Andhra Pradesh. The CID registered a case against the company in June this year.Speak Asia Online Ltd started its business through its website without any authorisation from the Centre and the accused have transferred more than Rs. 600 crore to their personal accounts in Singapore.Sources associated with the case investigation, said the CID would also get the COO of the company, Tarak Bajpai, arrested by the Mumbai police sometime ago, to Hyderabad on a prisoner-transit warrant. He is presently recuperating in a hospital after undergoing an operation. “Once he recovers, we will bring him to Hyderabad,” sources said.The CID is likely to seek the help of Interpol to track down Speak Asia managing director Harender Kaur, who is said to be either in Singapore or Dubai.