Saturday, May 26, 2012

Christian bodies take faithfuls for a ride-ToI-2.5.12


14 Organisations Booked For Duping People In The Name Of Money Circulation Schemes

Hyderabad: The state police have registered cases against 14 Christian organizations and individuals for floating money circulation schemes and duping people. These organizations and individuals have been charged with luring innocent people to invest their money in various schemes with the promise that their investment would be doubled in a short period of time. The victims were also promised various incentives if they induced others to join the scheme, police sources told TOI.
 
    In all, 79 cases of such money circulation schemes were filed against 14 organizations on March 3, 2012. Of these, the CID is probing 18cases (C. No 2549/C-12/CID/2011) while the remaining are being investigated by the district police. While the money circulation scheme have originated in Ongole, 12 cases were booked in Prakasam district followed by 11 in Guntur rural police district. Seven cases each were registered in Guntur Urban, Kurnool and Nellore and six in Warangal rural.
 
    Several pastors in Warangal and Prakasam districts were involved in the money circulation racket. According to CID sources, promising to pay the investors double the amount after 11 months, some pastors collected deposits from the community people in the name of a trust in Ongole. Based on a complaint lodged by the victims that they were duped, police arrested Gangarapu Anil Kumar of Vaddepalli in Warangal town who worked as a pastor at Damera in Elukaturthi mandal in Karimnagar district.
 
    During inquiry, police came to know about the involvement of many other pastors. Following a complaint that Narsampet pastor Wilson Peter too, collected money in the name of a trust, police registered a case against him. Similarly, they booked a case against David, a pastor at a church at Chalvai in Govindraopet mandal.
 
    Police are inquiring about others involved
 in the scandal. The pastors had been telling people that their trusts were receiving money from foreign countries and that they were launching such schemes for the benefit of the poor. According to the cops, in Prakasam alone, Rs 300 crore was collected in the name of the scheme. 
    The CID sources claimed that as an incentive to people to invest in the scheme, the organizations took many of them to Bangkok, Pattaya, Singapore and other countries in the name of promotional trips and organized conferences and meetings there. One particular focus of the scheme was to convince the existing members in such schemes to bring in more people so that they could gain financially.

No comments:

Post a Comment