3 arrested for posing as SII CEO, swindling ₹1 crore

The First Information Report (FIR) registered at the police station on September 8 by SII, states the accused had sent a WhatsApp message to Satish Deshpande, one of the directors of the firm, on September 7 asking him to transfer the amount to several unknown bank accounts the same day. The accused had used Adar Poonawalla’s image as the DP on the fake number, which drove Deshpande to make the transfer immediately, said cops.

Pune: The Bundgarden police late on Thursday night arrested three graduates for defrauding vaccine giant Serum Institute of India (SII) of ₹1 crore. According to the police, seven persons had committed the fraud on September 7; four of them arrested on November 10.

The youths were hired by the mastermind who acted as a mediator between the youths. The DCP added that the mediator chose the targets based on a keen study of financial transactions of various big companies. (REUTERS)

The First Information Report (FIR) registered at the police station on September 8 by SII, states the accused had sent a WhatsApp message to Satish Deshpande, one of the directors of the firm, on September 7 asking him to transfer the amount to several unknown bank accounts the same day. The accused had used Adar Poonawalla’s image as the DP on the fake number, which drove Deshpande to make the transfer immediately, said cops.

Cops are however, in the dark about how Deshpande could be so easily persuaded to make the transfer into several accounts.

A day after the deed, Deshpande realised he was defrauded after speaking to Poonawalla, who said he had not issued any order for the monetary transfer. Subsequently, SII made the complaint.

The three arrested have been identified as Rabi Kaushal Gupta, Yasir Nazim Khan and Prasad Satyanarayan. Rabi and Yasir are Bachelor in Technology (BTech) graduates, while Prasad is a Bachelor of Sciences (BSc) graduate.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone II) Smartna Patil said that the accused had been arrested from Bihar, Assam, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal.

“We found that the money was siphoned off and put into the accounts of eight accused who later transferred it to their acquaintances. Their accounts have been frozen and further investigation is on. We are probing their involvement in similar crimes,” she said.

“The eight bank accounts belonged to eight different persons. Seven of them have been arrested from seven states, while hunt is on for the main accused. We have seized 40 accounts into which money from these eight accounts was further transferred,” Patil said, adding that ₹13 lakh has been confiscated from these accounts.

“One of them works in a commercial bank,” the DCP said. “His banking know-how was used by the mastermind, who is still at large.

The youths were hired by the mastermind who acted as a mediator between the youths. The DCP added that the mediator chose the targets based on a keen study of financial transactions of various big companies.

Names of the second set of accused were revealed after cops grilled the first set arrested on November 10.

The police have invoked Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 419, 420, 34 and IT Act sections 66 C and 66 D against the accused.

The SII representative was unavailable for comment despite repeated attempts to contact him on phone and message.