Police arrests trio for duping SoBo firm of ₹1 crore

Carnac Bunder-based company, Bombay Marine Enterprises, deals in scrap and provides crane services to various companies.

Mumbai: The cyber police has arrested three members of a gang for duping a south Mumbai-based firm to the tune of ₹1 crore by tweaking a letter in an email ID. The three accused, identified as Bhumeshwar Sharma (52), Hemant Soliya (43) and Abhay Patiwar (43), are all Mumbai residents.

The company later discovered that L&T had not received the money and that they had not sent any email requesting the payment, the cyber police officials said.

Carnac Bunder-based company, Bombay Marine Enterprises, deals in scrap and provides crane services to various companies. In the police complaint, the company said it had been doing business with Larsen and Toubro (L&T) Powai since 2000 and purchased scrap material from them. It said that L&T’s side project manager Mangesh Patil coordinated with the company via e-mail.

Between May 20 and July 15, the company received an email from a similar-looking email ID, requesting payment and provided details of a bank account. Bombay Marine Enterprises, as per their business contract, deposited ₹1 crore in the said bank account.

The company later discovered that L&T had not received the money and that they had not sent any email requesting the payment, the cyber police officials said.

Upon carefully examining the sender’s email ID, the company discovered that frauds had created a similar-looking account of the L&T officer by flipping a letter and made the company pay in their bank account. The company then filed a case with the south region cyber police station. Police obtained details of the beneficiary’s bank account and arrested the trio from Versova last week.

The probe revealed that the arrested three members of the racket bought gold coins and biscuits with the fraud money. The police recovered 131.37 grams of gold, including three coins and 4 biscuits collectively worth ₹7.26 lakh. The police also managed to freeze ₹39.64 lakh from their bank accounts.

Investigators suspect that the three were following instructions from some other persons. The probe also revealed that fraud money was transferred to two other companies from the beneficiary’s bank account. Cops have identified a few more suspects and their investigation has reached Rajasthan, where more suspects are expected to be arrested.