Man who siphoned off 1,850 iPhones worth ₹11.13 cr arrested

Manish Pujari was booked in the case based on the complaint by Ingram Micro India Pvt Ltd, an authorised distributor of Apple products

Mumbai A 35-year-old former employee of a Vikhroli-based authorised Apple distributor has been arrested for allegedly duping his employers by syphoning off 1,850 iPhones worth ₹11.13 crore.

Pujari, a Kurla resident, worked in the company as sales manager between December 2014 and 2020 (AFP)

Manish Pujari was booked in the case based on the complaint by Ingram Micro India Pvt Ltd, an authorised distributor of Apple products. He surrendered himself.

Pujari, a Kurla resident, worked in the company as sales manager between December 2014 and 2020. During this tenure, he was entrusted with the responsibility of dealing with one of the firm’s biggest clients, Reliance Retail Ltd, to whom the distributor supplied Apple products on 15 to 21 days credit, said an Economics Offences Wing (EOW) official.

Pujari was looking after all the orders placed by Reliance Retail with the firm, ensuring that the client gets the ordered products on time from the firm’s Bhiwandi warehouse. He also had the responsibility of getting the purchase order - invoice prepared, getting the credit approval and also recovering dues from the client.

“Pujari was given the responsibility of developing relationships with the client and expanding business with them. Whenever the client (Reliance) would need urgent delivery of Apple products, they would send their men to the firm’s Bhiwandi warehouse and Pujari would ensure that they immediately got the delivery,” said the EOW officer.

In December 2020, Pujari resigned from the service. After some days, the firm discovered that Reliance Retail had an outstanding due of ₹11.13 crore towards the iPhones. When Reliance Retail was asked about this, they informed the complainant firm that their company had cleared all the dues.

Following this, the complainant firm carried out an internal audit of all the deals with Reliance Retail between 2017 and 2020 and found that 10 of the purchase order invoices were suspicious in nature.

The inquiry revealed that around 1,710 iPhone were delivered to Reliance Retail by the firm. A person by name Nitesh Kandade, posing as an executive from Reliance Retail, took the delivery of the iPhones from the Bhiwandi warehouse, but Reliance said they had no such employee, the officer added.

One Darshan Tawde had given the delivery of 1,710 iPhones to Kandade. He too had resigned from the job in August 2019 and was suspected to be involved in the alleged fraud, the officer added.

The complainant firm alleged that Pujari was involved in all the wrongdoings. “Pujari allegedly got the bogus authorisation letter of Reliance Retail prepared with the help of the company’s forged stamp in order to syphon off 1,710 iPhones from the warehouse. Pujari is also accused of not returning 140 iPhones returned by the client back to the firm,” stated Mrudul Chauhan, general manager, Ingram Micro India, in the FIR.

The FIR added that in order to ensure that all these irregularities do not surface, Pujari had sent an email to the credit team saying payment of 1,850 iPhones worth ₹11.13 crore has been received from Reliance Retail. He also allegedly misguided Ingram Micro India by saying that payment of other invoices was pending.

The EOW officials on Tuesday produced Pujari before a court and remanded him in six-day police custody.