Another scam: Uninor duped of Rs 95 lakh by CA, associates

A leading telecom company was allegedly defrauded of more than Rs 95 lakh by a chartered accountant (CA) and three of his associates, including an aeronautical engineer and a manager in Saket, police said on Saturday. HT reports.

A leading telecom company was allegedly defrauded of more than Rs 95 lakh by a chartered accountant (CA) and three of his associates, including an aeronautical engineer and a manager in Saket, police said on Saturday.

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"The accused have been identified as Manoj Pahwa, 34, a resident of Rohini and a chartered accountant (CA), Varun Mittal, 23, a resident of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and an aeronautical engineer, Rahul Sharma, 33, a native of Gurgaon and executive accountant in Unitech Wireless and Nitin Sharma, 24, from Ghaziabad (UP)," said a police officer.

Police said the gang was involved in cheating Uninor, a joint venture of Telenor and Unitech, of R95 lakh by forging signatures of officials managing its financial transactions.

"We have recovered Rs 6.48 lakh and a gold biscuit weighing one kilogram, along with some golden ornaments from the gang," the officer said.

According to the police, Vishal Jain, a senior manager at Unitech Wireless, had brought the matter to the police's notice in September 2010, when he registered a complaint stating that Rs 95 lakh had been fraudulently debited from three company accounts and 13 cheques had been stolen from their Saket office.

"All the missing cheques were stolen by Rahul at the behest of his acquaintance, Varun, from his company office in Saket. The money was withdrawn using forged signatures prepared by their accomplice Amrita Kumari Sharma, who is absconding. Varun then gave the cheques to his various associates for encashing in return for a percentage of the total amount," the officer said.

Police said the gang had been sent to police custody for four days and further investigations into the matter were underway. "We are on the trail of Amrita Sharma and are working on various leads," said HGS Dhaliwal, deputy commissioner of police (south).