Mumbai employee arrested for defrauding Goregaon firm of ₹5.72 crore

A corporate gifting employee was arrested for allegedly cheating his firm of ₹5.72 crore by misappropriating gold coins meant for orders.

MUMBAI: A 44-year-old employee working with a corporate gifting firm, who allegedly cheated his firm to the tune of ₹5.72 crore, was arrested on Thursday. According to the police, the accused claimed to have received a huge corporate order from a pharmaceutical company, purchased around 7,000 gold coins from the company and misappropriated them.

The police registered a case on September 19 based on a complaint by Naresh Jain, 49, a resident of Goregaon East who runs the firm(HT/Representational Image)

The police registered a case on September 19 based on a complaint by Naresh Jain, 49, a resident of Goregaon East who runs the firm in Goregaon East. The accused, Sunil Gupta, is a resident of Malad. He met Jain in 2022 and expressed interest in working with him. Jain inquired with other professionals about Gupta and got a positive report of his work.

So Jain, under the name Brand Harmony, started a business for Gupta in 2022, which he used for his business for two years. In August 2024, Gupta said he had received orders from Macleods Pharmaceuticals, Andheri East, a police officer said. The company arranged for 3,400 gold coins, each weighing 1 gram, worth ₹2.46 crore, which Gupta seemed to have facilitated legitimately. However, only part-payment was made.

In January this year, Gupta said the same pharmaceutical company required 3,600 gold coins, valued at ₹3.17 crore, for corporate gifting. He produced a purchase order from the pharma company to gain Jain’s confidence. Jain got the gold coins ready and delivered them to Gupta outside the pharma company, like the first time. “However, no payment was made for the gold coins this time,” the officer said.

In March, when Jain questioned Gupta, the latter confessed he used all the gold coins for his personal use and that there were no orders. He also said he was facing some financial troubles and promised to return the money in three months. The complainant accepted this and contacted him in July, but Gupta refused to return the money, as per the complaint.

The Vanrai police station in Goregaon East has registered a case against Gupta under sections 316 (criminal breach of trust), 318 (cheating), 336 (forgery), 338 (forgery of valuable security) and 341 (whoever possesses any seal, plate or other instrument knowing the same to be counterfeit) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.