NEW DELHI, JULY 21

The Supreme Court on Monday granted protection from arrest to actor Shreyas Talpade in a case of cheating and breach of trust against a society.

A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and K V Viswanathan issued notice to Haryana Police and others on the actor's plea.

Thirteen people, including actors and brand ambassadors Talpade and Alok Nath, were booked on the complaint of 37-year-old Sonipat resident Vipul Antil.

Antil alleged both the actors "promoted the Human Welfare Credit Cooperative Society Ltd, as brand ambassadors".

Additional Commissioner of Police, Murthal, Sonipat, Ajeet Singh said the complaint was against a multi-marketing company under investigated.

About the two actors, the ACP had said, "It has been alleged that they were its brand ambassadors and victims get lured to invest because of such personalities. They were named in the complaint. An FIR has been registered. Now, it will be investigated what was their role."

The FIR was registered on January 22 under Sections 316 (2), 318 (2) and 318 (4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, for various offences, including criminal breach of trust and cheating, on Antil's complaint.

He alleged that the society committed a "serious crime of cheating the public through financial schemes".

According to the complaint, the society was formed under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act and it started functioning in many states including Haryana from September 16, 2016.

"Its main functions were to provide savings schemes like fixed deposit and recurring deposit. It presented itself as a trustworthy and safe financial institution and carried out massive publicity to attract and convince investors. The model was based on multi-level marketing, which rapidly increased the number of investors," it stated.

Promising better returns, the society assured investors that their money would be safe and the maturity amount would be paid on time and claimed they did so initially for a few years, the complaint alleged.

It further alleged that in 2023, the payment of maturity amount to the investors started getting disrupted and the "officials of the society kept trying to justify the delay by making the excuse of system upgradation".

Antil claimed when investors and agents approached the society officials, they were given false assurances. "Gradually, the owners of the society ended all contact and the investors did not get their hard-earned money back..," he added.