NEW DELHI: The managing director of India Household and Health Care Limited (IHHL) has been arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch on charges of cheating several businessmen by making false claims of authorisation to appoint agents and distributors in India for a famous Korean firm.

In a case registered at Punjabi Bagh in West Delhi this August, the complainant claimed that in March last year he came across some IHHL advertisements offering franchise of a famous Korean company, L.G. Care. The IHHL managing director, Vijay Raghunath Singh, claimed that after appointing the complainant as the clearing and forwarding agent, he would place goods of L.G. Care worth Rs. 2 crores in his name. He further claimed that in due course, he would also get the complainant products of other famous international brands. Lured by the offer, the complainant paid Rs. 1.5 crores to the accused through three cheques, following which an agreement was signed.

According to the Deputy Commissioner of Police (EOW), Prabhakar, initially, the accused who had promised goods worth Rs. 3 crores per month sent just a few goods of the L.G. Care to the complainant, that too of inferior quality. When the complainant objected to it, he claimed that his company was at an advance state of signing a deal with Eurolife Worldwide and other renowned companies, whose agencies would be given to the complainant. Suspecting that he was being taken for a ride, the complainant approached the police.

Investigations revealed that Vijay and his wife, Aishwarya, had formed IHHL in partnership with K.P. Jairam, a non-resident Indian from Saudi Arabia, and his wife, Shobha, in 2003. Their intension was to cheat businessmen on the pretext of supplying them health products by L.G. Care. They connived with some junior staffers of the Korean firm to prepare a forged memorandum of understanding, on the basis of which they would convince the businessmen that IHHL was authorised to select agents and dealers for L.G. Care in India.

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