In February, a police station in Bihar’s Chapra district had allegedly refused to file an FIR after Kanchan*, a 19-year-old, accused a Surat-headquartered herbal firm’s executive of forcing her to work without pay, and the owner of facilitating her rape by the executive under the pretext of marriage.
The executive was arrested along with four other staffers only in May as Kanchan approached a local court in Muzaffarpur. But the police could not act against Manish Sinha, the owner of DBR Bioresearch Ayurveda Private Limited, which goes by the brand name of DBR Unique.
Sinha has remained absconding since December last year, when he obtained anticipatory bail in another case against him in which he has also been chargesheeted apart from nine others linked to DBR. An FIR was filed in May last year by one Omkar Pandey, who accused the company of fraud and exploitation in Muzaffarpur district.
There have been a total of seven FIRs accusing the company of fraud, including the two that name Manish Sinha.
Newslaundry’s previous report on the company had detailed how multiple complaints struggled to pull the lid off DBR’s tagline of “disease- and unemployment-free India”, despite allegations of fraud, exploitation and harassment of hundreds of youngsters from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
According to complaints, the company’s edition of multilevel marketing lures youngsters into jobs, and then forces them to sign up more into jobs that never existed. The alleged modus operandi seems to be simple: make a salary offer saying the job is about medicinal products, ask for money for training, pocket the amount, confine the candidate to company premises, and then force the same person into tricking more into joining the paid “training” programme. According to the company’s website, it has a network of around 3 lakh individuals.
Cops shielding owner?
Muzaffarnagar City SP Avdhesh Saroj Dixit said Kanchan and the executive who has been arrested “were in a live-in relationship”. “They had a quarrel after which the girl filed a complaint. We have arrested the accused. The investigation is ongoing.”
Jitendra Mahto, the investigating officer in Kanchan’s case, recorded the statements of several individuals who claimed to be exploited by DBR staffers, “but my phone got formatted”. “I am trying to recover the deleted documents. If not, then we will have to record the statements again.”
Asked about Manish Sinha, Dixit said the police will act as per evidence.
In the case filed in May last year on the basis of Omkar Pandey’s complaint, Sinha was among the 10 who were chargesheeted. But he was granted anticipatory bail by the Patna High Court in December last year, and has been absconding since then.
‘Sexual abuse’
Kanchan claimed that there was a “pattern” at the company, of top executives sexually harassing women staffers. “It has happened to many people.” She claimed that the management knew she had evidence against the company, and arranged for her “fake” wedding with the executive who had raped her in order to ensure that she does not speak up. There was no ceremony for the marriage, she claimed, adding that the executive further pressured her to trick more people into joining the firm.
In May last year, a case under the POCSO Act was lodged against DBR employees at Raxaul police station in East Champaran, after a complaint by a woman from Jharkhand’s Dumka district who alleged that her 16-year-old daughter was lured into the job, given drugs, and sexually abused.
In three videos reviewed by Newslaundry, women who claimed to have worked for DBR are being thrashed by alleged staffers of the company.
One of these videos features Tripti*, who has also given her statement to the police in the case Kanchan got lodged.
Tripti is from the Manjhi Mahadalit community and was allegedly lured into working for the company by a youngster from her village in Chapra district after her class 10 exam. She admitted that she was beaten up but refused to comment further. Her mother claimed that she returned home as she did not like the job. “We have given her a total of Rs 17,500 the company had asked for.”
Ranjeeta*, who also features in one of the videos and has testified before the police in Kanchan’s case, is from the Mahto Mahadalit community and a resident of Siwan district. She alleged that she was tricked into working for the company at a centre in Hajipur when she was in class 12.
In the video, the same executive who has been arrested in Kanchan’s case was purportedly seen grabbing Ranjeeta by her hair, beating her and cursing her. “They gave us targets for including more people (into the firm’s network). Since I didn’t fulfill them, they beat me. Not just me, they used to beat everyone. They used to treat us like animals.”
“They did not let me go for my class 12 exams. They did not let me leave the room. We had to talk to family in front of them too.”
Asked about these videos, SP Dixit said the police were probing the matter. “Whatever angle surfaces, it will be investigated.”
Dixit and Mahto believe the company sells herbal products. However, the 50 former and current employees who spoke to Newslaundry claimed that none of them were made to work for that department.
From Rs 1.7 crore to Rs 17.1 crore in one year
DBR was formed in May 2021 with only Manish Sinha as director.
In 2021-22, its balance sheet, filed before the ministry of corporate affairs, suggested the company’s turnover was Rs 1.7 crore. This turnover for the same financial year was shown as Rs 17.1 crore in the sheet filed the next year.
Similarly, in 2022-23, the turnover in the financial statement is Rs 11.37 crore while it is Rs 113.7 crore in the annual report.
The company’s turnover rose exponentially but the salaries rose from Rs 6 lakh to Rs 9.4 lakh annually when compared to the previous year.
In 2021-22, the company reported a profit of around Rs 44,200, and the next year this rose to around Rs 4 lakh. But according to the balance sheet, the company paid no tax despite this profit in both the financial years.
Both the balance sheets lacked specifics to fully explain the firm’s expenditure.
The company’s documents were signed by its CA on September 12, 2023, and by Manish Sinha on September 3, 2023.
When Newslaundry visited DBR’s Noida office, one Ashish Chauhan said the sales of medicines “are not a lot”. Asked if the company could show us some medicines that had been kept at the office, Chauhan refused. A woman staffer told us to leave the premises.
A questionnaire has been emailed to Manish Sinha. This report will be updated if a response is received.
* Names changed to protect identity.
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