E-Paper
Fake Jindal Steel salesperson dupes pvt company of ₹9.11 lakh
MUMBAI: An FIR was filed against an unknown person for creating a fake Jindal Steel and Power Limited website, duping a city firm of ₹10 lakh for hospital expansion.
MUMBAI: The Marine Drive police on Monday registered an FIR against an unknown person for creating a fake website of steel-producing company Jindal Steel and Power Limited and duping a city-based firm of nearly 10 lakh. According to investigators, the imposter posed as a sales executive from Jindal Steel and promised the company to supply steel worth ₹9.11 lakh for expansion work of a hospital in Rajasthan.
The complainant in the case is Manish Malani, 55, who works as the chief executive officer (CEO) with Zenith Dyeintermediates Limited, a company of the Birla Group which manufactures chemical products and pharmaceuticals.
Malani told the police that the Birla Group was expanding a hospital built by them in Pilani, a town in Rajasthan which is around 200 km from Jaipur.
“For this purpose, the company required steel materials and therefore they started searching for suppliers online. While browsing the web, Malani’s assistant Pradeep Garva chanced upon a steel supplier and he noted down the name and number of the person mentioned on the website, identified as Sudhir Sharma, who claimed that he worked as a sales executive with Jindal Steel and Power Limited,” said the police officer.
Garva called the number and told the salesperson they wanted six tonnes of steel. The fraud, Sudhir Sharma, provided the details of his bank account and asked Garva to send ₹3.33 lakh as a down payment. He said the company would send them an invoice.
“When the money was transferred by the complainant’s company to the accused on the bank account via RTGS, Sharma called Garva and told him that the minimum requirement to buy steel from their company is 15 tonnes. Garva then asked his seniors and sought permission to buy 15 tonnes of steel. He called Sharma to get a quotation for the same and later transferred an amount of ₹9.11 lakh to Sharma’s bank,” said an officer.
Two days after the money was transferred, on August 24, Garva enquired about the material and the status of the transportation and he was told by Sharma to send ₹2.51 lakh more, as refundable transport charges. “Malani and his colleagues then started suspecting foul play and asked Garva to cancel the order. Sharma told them that the money would be refunded to them by August 25. The next day, when the complainants called him, he postponed the date again. On August 26, he started giving vague answers after which they decided to report the matter to the police,” said the officer.
The cheating took place between August 22 and August 26 and the fraud has not refunded the amount.
The man has been booked under sections 318(4) (cheating) and 319(2) (cheating by personation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and section 66D (personation using a computer resource) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
