New Delhi: The Delhi Police’s crime branch on Thursday arrested a 38-year-old former Border Security Force (BSF) cook from Delhi’s Rohini for allegedly duping thousands of people in Rajasthan of over ₹100 crore through a multi-level marketing (MLM) scheme, said officials on Friday.
The accused — Oma Ram aka Ram Marwari, a native of Gopalsar village in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur — allegedly duped the people between 2008 and 2011, said police.
Ram, who graduated Class 12, worked as a cook in the BSF from 2004 to 2006. In 2007, he started a security agency in Jaipur with 60 employees, but later sold it. He then joined an MLM company as an agent, and allegedly earned ₹1.5 crore in less than one year.
“In 2008, Ram started an MLM company himself. Ram, the managing director of the company, along with chairman Vijendra Singh, executive director DC Yadav and director Madan Mohan Meena urged people to join the scheme by depositing ₹4,000, and provided each of them with safari suits worth ₹400,” said deputy commissioner of police (crime) Vichitra Veer.
“They also promised them incentives and commissions on bringing more business and getting more people to join the scheme. The company offered a 20% commission to a new investor, on a condition that each member had to make at least 10 more people join the scheme. On bringing a business of ₹2 lakh per month within a year, the member would be gifted a new motorcycle… Thousands of investors joined the company, and got duped of over ₹100 crore between 2008 and 2011 after the company started defaulting their incentives and commissions. That is when the investors filed complaints against the MLM company at several police stations in Rajasthan… Ram shut the company and absconded,” DCP Veer said.
According to police, Ram fled to Madhya Pradesh’s Indore and obtained a licence for a cooperative society — a voluntary association of individuals who come together with the intention to work together and promote their economic interests. The suspect assumed new names “Ram” and “Ram Marwari”, and again dabbled into different businesses, but eventually suffered losses. In 2014, he returned to Delhi and started working on property dealing for nearly three years. In 2018, he opened a grocery store ‘Cash Back Bazar‘ in Najafgarh, but suffered losses there as well, so he opened a grocery store, which he ran till 2020.
In 2020, police arrested Ram for his alleged involvement in a rape and sexual harassment case that was filed at the Najafgarh police station in southwest Delhi.
A woman had filed a complaint against Ram, saying that he allegedly raped her several times on the pretext of marriage, said a crime branch officer, who was part of the team that arrested Ram on Thursday. “At that time, police were not aware of his criminal antecedents in Rajasthan. A few months later, Ram was granted a bail in the rape case, and he never returned to join the court proceedings,” said the crime branch officer, requesting anonymity.
Ram allegedly went to Indore in 2020, following the bail, and launched an e-commerce platform ‘Apna Kart’. He lived in a rented accommodation there. He had been in touch with some of his contacts in Delhi for money, said police.
According to Rajasthan police, the accused was wanted in 59 cheating, criminal breach of trust, forgery and criminal conspiracy cases registered at different police stations across the state between 2011 and 2013. Of the 59 cases, Ram was declared a proclaimed offender in 46 cases by the courts concerned in Rajasthan, police said.
DCP Veer said the Delhi Police had been trying to trace Ram for the last six months after receiving information about the accused. The northern range 1 team of the Delhi Police’s crime branch managed to collect information on Ram’s current identity and latest photographs, and put surveillance on his family members, but failed to zero down on Ram as he did not even use a cellphone.
DCP Veer said that Ram contacted his family members and contacts on social media, through computers or laptops. “After a long search of nearly six months, the crime branch successfully identified his trail, confirmed his latest photograph with the Najafgarh police, and arrested Ram from Rohini’s Sector 11 on Thursday, when he had come to meet his contact there,” said DCP Veer.
A further investigation is underway and strict action will be taken against him, said police officials on Friday.
