We were cheated,” said one person from among a group of victims who lamented at falling prey to the promise of huge profits on their investments in a scheme that had all the elements of official sanction but left them about Rs 100 crore poorer.
He said when he first heard about the scheme, it sounded genuine since it was quite similar to the one launched by the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) which is now a dairy behemoth.
The group told reporters at the Press Club at Somajiguda that instead of cow and buffalo milk which the GCMMF procures from villagers, this scheme involved donkey milk which the cooperative set up in Tirunelveli of Tamil Naidu promised to buy from the rearers at the rate of Rs 1,600 per litre.
It was the price that attracted investors, some of whom pumped in lakhs. The victims were from almost all parts of south India – Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.Sai Baba from Bengaluru said that he invested Rs 26 lakh and his friends another Rs 26 lakh to buy donkeys and pay the registration fees to the cooperative.
“We approached the management after seeing advertisements on YouTube. My three friends from Kuppam lost money. One of them attempted suicide and he is critical,” Sai Baba said. He said that he believes around 400 families from the four states have lost money.
Sai Baba alleged that the cooperative was launched on May 13, 2022, by the then collector of Tirunelveli district. However, while it is not clear whether the scheme had official sanction, the video clips of a collector himself launching the scheme convinced investors.
Nikhilesh said that after seeing a video on YouTube, he took a parcel of land on lease at Narasaraopet in Andhra Pradesh, built a shed on it and arranged all other amenities with an investment of Rs 54 lakh.
“We believed in this donkey milk business as it was in the aftermath of Covid-19. After Covid, immunity was the buzz word. Donkey milk is considered to boost immunity levels and that is why I invested in this business,” he said.
The victims appealed to Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy to speak to the Tamil Nadu government and do justice to them.
