Saturday 17 March 2012

New Life Society for the Poor and Handicapped - The Scam


An impressive looking website helps to promote the scam 
 You receive a letter or email from an organisation in India, describing the dire need of children who are disabled, homeless, sick, orphaned, hungry or needing clean water. Of course, you are moved by compassion and want to help  - but you wonder whether the appeal is authentic.  Could it not, after all, be a scam?  One way of checking its authenticity, you might think, is to see what is said about the organisation online. 

An online search for The New Life Society for the Poor and Handicaped will reveal a professionally produced website  http://thenewlifesociety.com/  for what appears to be a credible society, actively working for some of the poorest in India. The impressive-looking website (expensively produced by Bhoomica InfoGraphics  in Hyderabad, A.P., as a little background checking reveals) suggests that you can confidently donate and that your contribution will make a difference to the lives of those greatly in need.

But is the "New Life Society" really as it seems?

Unfortunately...no.

Some Scam Observations

1.  The contact details of the '"New Life Society" on the "Contact us" page are "Rehabilitation Centre, Annavarapadu, Ongole."  This is, in fact, the address of a Centre, the construction of which was funded by Enable and which is legally owned by the Dayananda Nilayam Society for Social Development (DNSSD).  Until the criminal case concerning Arulraj and the DNSSD comes to trial it is unlawful for this property to be sold.  This has been Arulraj's base since 2001.

2. DNSSD was primarily involved with supporting disabled children.  The many photos of children on the "New Life Society" site were supported by DNSSD before 2006.  It is particularly reprehensible that they should now be used as part of Arulraj's scam, given that most of them were abandoned by Arulraj in 2006. Amongst those children who remained in one of the DNSSD centres after that date were some -  included in the website photos - who credibly told me and others personally in January 2007 that they had been intimidated and even beaten by DNSSD personnel after Enable's association with DNSSD ended in May 2006. (I will write more about this in another post)

3.  Not even one photo of the children on the website was taken after 2006.  Some photos were taken in 2003-2004.  I know that some of the photos were taken in January 2002. How do I know?  Because I took them and possess the originals and negatives! And I very much object to my own photographs being used now as part of Arulraj's scam.

4. An impressive list of other services is given.  Some of them are wholly fictitious: having photographs of  elderly people attending a function (at a DNSSD centre!) and providing them with a meal (as happens at such functions in India) does not constitute care for them, and there is not even one "old age home" run by any organisation with which Arulraj is involved. Several years ago Enable provided DNSSD with funds for such things as polio surgeries, hand water pumps, and vocational training courses, and so Arulraj has photographs to show an involvement with such things.  But those days are in the distant past.

5. In the "About Us" page it states that the New Life Society was registered in Andhra Pradesh in 1999. Either it was registered later than that date (in which case the site is being deliberately deceptive) or it has been scamming since then and raising money for non-existent projects -- possibly claiming that DNSSD projects (funded by Enable) were projects of the New Life Society, with Arulraj pocketing all the donations received for them. If the New Life Society had actually been doing any concrete public service since 1999, why are all the photographs on the website of activities associated with the DNSSD?

6. On the "project experiences" page it says that the New Life Society has "3 decades of experienced management in the community development." This is quite a remarkable accomplishment for a Society registered, according to the same website, for 13 not 30 years.  This, and the other 'experiences' are entirely made up.  It sounds great, but has no substance to it whatsoever.

7. One page describes "Our team" - but only one person is in fact mentioned: "Mr G. A. Raj." He is described as having "undergone a number of interstate, national and international exposures."  As the name "Mr G.A. Raj" has received no exposure until now, this is in fact untrue. However, given that his alter-ego "Fr Gali Arulraj" has been widely exposed as a fraudster, scammer, and thief, perhaps it should be applauded as a uniquely truthful statement.  As he clearly esteems exposure, I trust that Arulraj will be grateful for the exposure given to him by this blog.

8. If its Director is "Fr Gali Arulraj" (as stated on Arulraj's Linked-In profile) why the deception on the New Life Society website that its Director is Mr. G.A. Raj?



A cynical manifestation of religious idealism - by a priest of all people - to promote a scam
  
9. The prominent display of images of Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta and Jesus Christ on the website promoting such a despicable scam, shows Arulraj's contempt for the religion of which he is supposed to be a priest.