The craze of becoming famous without any achievements makes a person vulnerable to get into the trap of crooks and something similar seems to have happened in this case too. According to the reports, around 5 Goan women among 44 from across the country have been duped to the tune of 32 lakh rupees by the organizers of a Beauty Pageant called Super Mom 2019.
According to the report published by The Goan local daily, In one of the major racket in the glamorous fashion and beauty show industry that was busted in Pune recently when 44 women, including 5 Goans, all married and having kids, assimilated in a local hotel in Pune to participate in the grand finale of India’s Super Mom contest 2019. But to their surprise and dismay, the organizers who had already collected lakhs of rupees from them fled from the venue with cash.
The final round of India’s Super Mom 2019 was supposed to be on Sunday evening on July 21. All 44 women from across the country arrived with their spouses and kids a day prior to the event and stayed in a local hotel in Pune suggested by the organizers. The booking for the hotel was done online by these participants paying from their own pockets. But the organizers and their team of employees had already fled from the scene. The beauty pageants tried to contact the local police and lodge a complaint of this fraudulent act, but the police advised them to register their complaint at the place from where this entire crime originated.
The women from different parts of the country including, Pune, Mumbai, Delhi, Goa, Ahmedabad, and Bengaluru were pursuing the dream of winning the Super Mom title but were cheated systematically in this organized cyber-crime incident. Goan women hailed from Mapusa, Vasco, Margao, Ponda, and Bicholim. The persons working for the organizers informed that the names of the organizers were Tuhin Das and Tanushree Das.
Each participant had to shell out from their pocket an amount of Rs 20,000 as fee and apart from this, they also had to spend on their dresses and had to bear the cost of other expenses for the grand finale, totaling a loss of Rs 50,000 to each participant. The contestants who are the residents of Pune have said that they will be lodging the complaint with cybercrime branch police station in Pune but what about the others? can they afford to fight the case in Pune?
What is Super Mom Contest all about?
According to the reports, the story began with the announcement of the Super Mom 2019 contest wherein the organizers invited mothers to participate, and the videos of these moms were uploaded on the Facebook and other social media platforms. The organizers adopted a strong and systematic advertising campaign and took Rs 20,000 from each of them. Then they chose the contestants from across the country. These contestants were told that the final round will be at the Magarpatta area in Pune on July 21.
The Facebook posts reveal that the organizers had managed to get sponsorship from noted companies. The advertisements announced that the final round would have live performances and celebrities like Kunal Kapoor, Sudha Chandran, Ruslan Mumtaj and other well-known personalities will play the jury. Also, this event was ticketed and the price of the tickets was Rs 499 to Rs 10,000 each.
The accommodation arrangements for the contestants, their spouses and children were done in a hotel near Vagholi. Since the payment for the stay was online, 44 of the contestants paid their accommodation charges and booked their stay in the said hotel spending money from their own pocket.
On Sunday evening, the contestants along with their family went to watch the event at the nearby Hadapsar Lawns, but to their surprise, the security told them that the program had been canceled. There were two persons, a brother-sister duo working in Pune for organizers. The person claimed that he was working for the organizer since a month-and-a-half and that Tuhin Das has borrowed Rs 4.5 lakh from him, promising him to return the amount with 20 percent interest after the show as he was to get lakhs of rupees once the show got over.
The organizers, Tuhin and Tanushree, took auditions in many cities across India and accepted different amounts – Rs 20,000, Rs 30,000 or Rs 50,000 – from the participant mothers. The amount duped comes to approximately Rs 30 lakh, informed the youth working for Das duo. As the set contractor was not paid in advance, he did not erect the set at the venue. When we reached the venue in the evening, there was no sign of any setup. The Das duo absconded from the scene since afternoon and their mobiles were switched off. They had deleted all the posts uploaded on Facebook and other social media platforms. Many contestants broke down and began crying when they realized that they were duped but by then it was too late.
News Source: The Goan
