Bollywood actor Sonam Kapoor’s father-in-law was reportedly duped of Rs. 27 crores in a highly-unique cyber fraud which involves misappropriating of taxes by forging digital signature. The Faridabad police have arrested the culprits who ran the sophisticated scam and duped Harish Ahuja’s firm Shahi Export Factory. Reportedly, the police were working on complaint raised by Mr. Ahuja’s firm that was filed earlier in July 2021.
So far, 9 persons have been accused from multiple locations in India, including, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi and Karnataka. The accused have been identified by Manoj Rana, Manish Kumar, Praveen Kumar, Lalit Kumar Jain, Manish Kumar, Bhushan Kishan Thakur, Suresh Kumar, Rahul Raghunath & Santosh Sitaram.
Reportedly, some of the accused were working for the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) as clerks and employees, and were well-versed with the inner-workings of DGFT.
For the unversed, Bollywood actor Sonam Kapoor tied knot with Anand Ahuja, son of Harish Ahuja, back in 2018. Anand Ahuja is the director of the company that was duped of Rs. 27 crores by fraudsters.
Background
As the world goes beyond digital and enters the meta-verse, crimes are now being committed by and through digital means. Cybercrime in India rose about 19 times between 2005 and 2014. Meanwhile, according to government data, cybercrimes spiked nine times since 2013 to 2020. According to Crime in India report by the National Crime Records Bureau, India registered as many as 50,035 cybercrimes in 2020 as compared to 5,693 cases reported in 2013.
From individuals who are scammed by relatively less sophisticated frauds like KYC and identity theft, to organizations earning millions of rupees that get duped by highly-sophisticated cyber-attacks, today everyone is a potential victim.
Recently, Bollywood actor Sonam Kapoor’s father-in-law was reported to have been duped off Rs. 27 crores.
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The Facts of the Matter
On the basis of a report filed earlier in 2021, the Faridabad police busted a group of highly-sophisticated dumpsters who scammed father-in-law of Bollywood actor Sonam Kapoor on the tune of Rs. 27 crores. The now busted gang of cyber-fraudsters targeted the firm of Harish Ahuja called Shahi Export Factory. The highly-sophisticated scam involved the scammers misappropriating rebate of State and Central Taxes that were meant for the firm with the help of forged digital signature.
Modus Operandi of Sophisticated Scamsters
The Faridabad police recently spoke to media and gave an account of the cyber-criminals’ modus-operandi. According to Faridabad Deputy Commissioner of Police Nitish Agarwal, the Indian government gives some incentives to export companies in the form of ROSCTL licenses that makes them entitled to some kind of rebate in the customs and excise duties.
These licenses must be understood as digital coupons, each worth several of lakhs of rupees, that entitles a firm to get rebates from excise duties and taxes.
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How 27 Crs Were Duped by Cyber-Criminals
Reportedly, the scammer who targeted Sonam Kapoor’s father-in-law’s firm managed to collected 154 of such licenses, all amounting to a total of Rs. 27.61 crores.
The highly-sophisticated gang of cyber-criminals reportedly transferred the money to fake firms and later encashed the same. The scamsters also encashed the licenses by transferring them to fictitious firms.
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Accused from Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune & More
Reportedly, some of the accused had earlier worked as employees in the Directorate General of Foreign Trade, and knew the inner workings of the agency. These accused have been arrested from several locations in India, including, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Karnataka, Delhi, and more.
The accused have been identified as Delhi-based Manoj Rana, Manish Kumar, Praveen Kumar, Lalit Kumar Jain, Manish Kumar Moga, Mumbai based Bhusan Kishan Thakur, Chennai based Suresh Kumar Jain. Other accused include Raigadh based Rahul Raghunath, Pune based Santosh Sitaram, Raichur based Ganesh Parsuram.
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