Relief to Ferreira as Hyderabad HC stays criminal case

The Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday stayed the criminal case registered against the 79-year-old Michael Joseph Ferreira and four others by the Hyderabad police for allegedly duping unemployed youth with e-commerce jobs and fraudulent investment schemes.

Padmabhushan awardee Ferriera and his associates are facing several criminal cases in Mumbai and Hyderabad on charges of aligning with fraudulent firms like Hongkong based Q-net and Hyderabad-based Vihaan direct selling marketing private limited that they had duped youth to the tune of over `100 crore. Ferriera was brought to Hyderabad on a transit warrant from a Mumbai jail.Justice Raja Elango made this order in a petition filed by Ferriera and his four other associates with a plea to quash the case against them.

Senior counsel D V Sitarama Murthy, appearing for Ferriera, told the court that his client was only a share holder in the Vihaan company and had nothing to do with the day-to-day functioning of the company. Besides, he has got nothing to do with Q-net, a



Hong Kong-based company. While staying the criminal case against Ferriera and four others, the judge sought the version of the police by Friday. Later, the local criminal court granted bail to Ferriera and he was sent back to Mumbai police custody.

Earlier in the day, Ferreira and the three others were arrested by the Hyderabad police in connection with an FIR registered against them here in the alleged multi-crore rupee fraud involving the multi-level marketing company QNet.

Ferreira was one of the four active directors of Vihaan Direct Selling India Pvt Ltd, a master franchise of QNet. Hyderabad Detective department DCP Avinash Mohanty said a case was registered against Vihaan Direct Selling in 2015, in which about 60 complainants had stated that the company had collected money for providing high returns. The fraud is believed to be over hundreds of crores of rupees, as the company had cheated about five lakh persons across India, including Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, New Delhi and Tamil Nadu.