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.
