Alok Nath gets relief from Supreme Court, stay on arrest in Haryana marketing scam

Popular Bollywood actor Alok Nath, also called 'Sanskari Babuji', is involved in a huge controversy nowadays. A complaint was lodged against him in a suspected marketing scam case filed in Haryana. But on Tuesday, the Supreme Court granted him a huge relief and suspended his arrest.

The case is of a multi-marketing firm of Haryana and its related Human Welfare Credit Cooperative Society Limited. This society was active since September 2016 and had opened its branches in many states. To attract the public, the organization offered savings schemes like fixed deposit and recurring deposit and assured the investors that their money would be completely safe and they would get better returns on time.

Payments continued to be made for the first few years, which further deepened the trust of the people. But according to the complaint, in the year 2023, suddenly the investors stopped getting the maturity amount. The officials of the society started avoiding the delay by making the excuse of 'system upgrade' and gradually broke off contact with the investors completely.

An FIR has been registered against 13 people in this fraud. These include actors Alok Nath and Shreyas Talpade. Complainant Vipul Antil alleges that both the actors had promoted this society as brand ambassadors. He says that when the celebrities promoted this institution, people considered it trustworthy and invested. Police say that the investigation is still going on and it will be ascertained how deep the role of these two stars was in it.

On Tuesday, a bench of Justice B.V. Nagarathna and Justice R. Mahadevan heard the matter. The court issued notice to Haryana Police and other parties and said that no strict action should be taken against Alok Nath till the next hearing. Earlier, actor Shreyas Talpade has also got relief from the apex court in the same case.

The FIR was registered on January 22, 2024. It mentions serious crimes under sections 316(2), 318(2) and 318(4) of the Indian Penal Code 2023, including criminal breach of trust and fraud. The complainant has claimed that the society worked on a multi-level marketing model. By giving initial returns, he won the trust of investors and later grabbed lakhs of rupees.

At present, Alok Nath has got protection from arrest, but the investigation is going on. His role and responsibility will be investigated till the next order of the court. If it is proved that he only promoted and was unaware of the fraud, then he may get relief. But if solid evidence is found against him, then the case can create problems for him.