Former Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Naresh Gujral was allegedly cheated of Rs 7.8 crore after fraudsters impersonated him on an online messaging application and tricked his company's financial staff into transferring funds according to Delhi Police, Naresh Gujral is son of former Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral who served as India's 12th Prime Minister from 1997 to 1998. Police said an e-FIR was registered and an investigation has been launched into the matter and according to investigators the fraud took place between June 12 and June 16. During this period unknown persons allegedly created an account on a messaging platform using Naresh Gujral's display picture. The fraudsters then posed as Gujral and contacted one of his employees.
Police said the scammers sent messages directing employee to transfer money through Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) transactions for what appeared to be urgent business related work and the employee reportedly believed the instructions were genuine because the messages appeared to come from Gujral. The employee had been granted financial access by Gujral and carried out instructions and over four days four separate RTGS transactions were made to a bank account specified by fraudsters.
As a result a total amount of Rs 7.8 crore was transferred the police said.
The alleged fraud came to light on June 16 when transactions were noticed by Gujral's daughter and she immediately checked the matter with her father and according to police Gujral denied sending any such messages or giving instructions for transfers and he also said he had no knowledge of transactions. Following this the family and company officials realised that they had become victims of an impersonation scam and investigators said swift action by authorities helped prevent further losses. Police were able to freeze nearly Rs 4 crore of defrauded amount by placing a lien on several bank accounts linked to suspected fraud.
The investigation is currently underway and police are tracing the movement of money and working to identify the individuals who received the funds and authorities are also examining the accounts used in transactions and attempting to establish the complete money trail.
