Bollywood actors Alok Nath, Shreyas Talpade, 22 others booked in fraud case

A case was filed against Bollywood actors Shreyas Talpade and Alok Nath, along with 22 others. The complainant alleged fraud in the name of investment in the Loni Urban Multi-State Credit and Thrift Cooperative Society.

Bollywood actors Shreyas Talpade and Alok Nath were brand ambassadors of this society.

The case was filed at the city police station based on a complaint from Babli, a resident of Baghpat.

Fraud cases against Alok Nath, Shreyas Talpade

Earlier in September, the Supreme Court had protected actor Alok Nath from arrest in a fraud case related to an alleged shady marketing scheme in Haryana.

A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and R Mahadevan issued notice to Haryana Police and others on the actor's plea.

While issuing notices, the bench said, "In the meanwhile no coercive steps to be taken against the petitioner by the respondents till the next date of hearing."

Before this, the Supreme Court had granted protection from arrest to actor Shreyas Talpade in the same case.

As many as 13 people, including actors and brand ambassadors Shreyas Talpade and Alok Nath, were booked on the complaint of 37-year-old Sonipat resident Vipul Antil.

Antil alleged both the actors "promoted the Human Welfare Credit Cooperative Society Ltd, as brand ambassadors".

ACP Murthal Ajeet Singh had said the complaint was against a multi-marketing company facing probe.

On the two actors, the ACP told PTI that they were allegedly its brand ambassadors and victims were lured to invest due to such personalities.

"They were named in the complaint. An FIR has been registered. Now, it will be investigated what their role was," he said.

The FIR was registered on January 22 under Sections 316 (2), 318 (2) and 318 (4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, for various offences, including criminal breach of trust and cheating, on Antil's complaint.

He alleged that the society committed a “serious crime of cheating the public through financial schemes.”

According to the complaint, the society was formed under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act and it started functioning in many states including Haryana from September 16, 2016.

"Its main functions were to provide savings schemes like fixed deposit and recurring deposit. It presented itself as a trustworthy and safe financial institution and carried out massive publicity to attract and convince investors. The model was based on multi-level marketing, which rapidly increased the number of investors," it stated.

Promising better returns, the society assured investors that their money would be safe and the maturity amount would be paid on time and claimed they did so initially for a few years, the complaint alleged.

It further alleged that in 2023, the payment of maturity amount to the investors started getting disrupted and the "officials of the society kept trying to justify the delay by making the excuse of system upgradation".

Antil claimed when investors and agents approached the society officials, they were given false assurances.

"Gradually, the owners of the society ended all contact and the investors did not get their hard-earned money back..," he added.