Amway India’s Managing Director and CEO William Scott Pinckney and two directors Sanjay Malhotra and Anshu Budhraja were arrested on Monday at Kozhikode on charges of fraud.

The arrests were made in connection with three cases registered against Pinckney in Wayanad district and a fourth in Kozhikode.

The economic offences wing of Crime Branch, Kozhikode, charged them under Section 420 of the IPC for ‘cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of products’. Cases have also been registered against them for violating the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978.

The direct seller’s Kerala operations have been in trouble from last year when its godowns were raided and stocks seized. Rajkumar, chief of Kerala operations, was also arrested. Earlier this year, godowns at Thrissur, Ernakulam, Kozhikode and Kannur were raided and products worth Rs 2.14 crore seized.

P. A. Valsan, Superintendent of Police, Crime Branch, Kozhikode, told Business Line that Pinckney was asked to come to Kozhikode for questioning. The arrest was made by the Wayanad police. Pinckney had sought anticipatory bail in all these cases, but got for only a case registered in Kozhikode.

The trio will be produced before the chief judicial magistrate court in Wayanad on Tuesday.

Condemning the arrests, Indian Direct Selling Association secretary-general Chavi Hemanth said: “The Government should come out with clarity between financial pyramid schemes and direct selling companies.”

(With inputs from Bindu D. Menon in Delhi and V. Sajeev Kumar in Kochi.)

> vinson.kurian@thehindu.co.in

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