Actor Alok Nath Gets Interim Relief In Haryana Marketing Scam Case

After Bollywood actor Shreyas Talpade, the Supreme Court on Tuesday protected actor Alok Nath from arrest in a fraud case related to an alleged shady marketing scheme in Haryana.

A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and R Mahadevan issued notice to Haryana Police and others on the actor's plea and said, "In the meanwhile, no coercive steps to be taken against the petitioner by the respondents till the next date of hearing."

Thirteen people, including actors and brand ambassadors Shreyas Talpade and Alok Nath, were booked on the complaint of 37-year-old Sonipat resident Vipul Antil, who alleged both the actors "promoted the Human Welfare Credit Cooperative Society Ltd, as brand ambassadors".

According to ACP Murthal Ajeet Singh, the complaint was against a multi-marketing company and two actors were allegedly its brand ambassadors which is why the victims were lured to invest in the scheme.

Talpade and Nath were named in the complaint and an FIR was registered. Their role will be investigated, police sources 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.

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

The complaint stated that the main functions of the society 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," the complaint 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.

No coercive action will be taken against Shreyas Talpade and Alok Nath till the next hearing.

(With PTI inputs)