Delivery exec steals ₹1.32L worth of high-end products by switching them with fakes

On January 12, Pachan once again deposited an Apple Watch and made an entry saying that the watch did not charge properly when the customer connected it to the charger. This, too, was entered in the company’s records and the watch was sent to the head office

Mumbai: A delivery executive working with an e-commerce giant was arrested for allegedly switching high-end electronics with fakes and depositing them in the company warehouse, claiming that customers refused to accept the delivery.

Delivery exec steals ₹1.32L worth of high-end products by switching them with fakes

According to Jogeshwari police, the accused was allegedly running the racket by exploiting a recently introduced return policy feature by the service provider.

The accused has been identified as Varchand Pachan (30), a resident of the Francis Wadi area in Jogeshwari.

According to police officials, the FIR was registered based on a complaint submitted by Rajesh Kurmi, who works as a team leader with the e-commerce platform’s delivery centre located at Parsi Panchayat Road.

The delivery centre employs a total of 25 delivery executives, who are assigned to different areas for deliveries. “From 2023, the platform has started allowing its customers to open their packages and check their purchases in the delivery executive’s presence so that they can return it to the executive if they don’t find the product up to their expectations. On January 5 this year, Pachan deposited a pair of Apple Airpods in the delivery centre, stating that the customer had examined them and did not like them. The product was accepted and sent back to the head office,” said an officer with the Jogeshwari police station.

On January 12, Pachan once again deposited an Apple Watch and made an entry saying that the watch did not charge properly when the customer connected it to the charger. This, too, was entered in the company’s records and the watch was sent to the head office. Pachan did the same on January 25 as well, submitting another pair of Apple AirPods and stating that one of the two Airpods had not worked when the customer checked it.

However, on Friday, Kurmi received a call from the Fraud and Security Manager of the e-commerce platform, who said that the serial numbers of the previous two products deposited by Pachan did not match the serial numbers entered in the records when the products were sent out. The manager further informed Kurmi that on closer inspection, both the AirPods and the Apple watch were found to be authentic-looking fakes.

“The complainant approached us on Saturday and we arrested Pachan from his residence the same day. The three products that he misappropriated are collectively worth ₹1.32 lakh and we are checking whether he has committed similar crimes in the three weeks that he has been employed with the platform. We are also trying to find out whether he has any past criminal record,” said senior police inspector Satish Tawre, Jogeshwari police station. Pachan has been charged with cheating and criminal breach of trust under the Indian Penal Code and has been remanded to police custody till Tuesday, Tawre added.