BHUBANESWAR: In a significant breakthrough, Boudh police on Friday arrested two employees and former staff of a logistics company for allegedly swindling Rs 42.84 lakh from Flipkart Private Limited. Police had narrowly missed getting their hands on prime accused Sunil Priyaranjan Pal (25) and his associate Ashish Ranjan Pradhan (24) from New Delhi recently. But Pal, Pradhan and the third accused - Byomkesh Giri were arrested from Odisha. Pal is the hub-in-charge and acting cluster manager of CABT Logistics and Pradhan is a team leader in the company.
Flipkart and CABT Logistics have entered into an agreement to deliver goods. Flipkart engages logistics firms to deliver large goods and non-large goods, weighing less than one kg, and groceries. CABT was delivering non-large goods like mobile phones, shoes, garments, and groceries.
Pal was the cluster manager of five hubs - Baunsuni, Kantamal, Bamur, G Udayagiri and Tikabali. Giri was earlier employed as the cluster manager of CABT but was removed from the job for siphoning off the money. Pal and Giri are reportedly close friends and the duo along with Pradhan improvised two methods to cheat Flipkart and make easy money.
One of the modus operandi of the accused was to swindle money by delivering the goods by having cash on delivery (COD) transactions. The delivery boys used to hand over the goods to the customers and collect money from them. The delivery boys then deposited the money with Pal.
The accused also ordered goods on Flipkart using fake names and sold the items to other customers.
When Flipkart’s cash management system (CMS) staff used to visit the hubs of CABT to collect the money towards the sale of the goods, Pal used to deliberately delay making the payments. As per procedure, the CMS staff used to hand over a receipt mentioning cash received to Pal.
The accused used to forge the cash receipts received from CMS staff of Flipkart and submit the same to the senior officials of CABT by filling higher amounts. The fraud came to light when Flipkart contacted CABT officials regarding non-payment of the goods. The logistics company conducted an inquiry and ascertained the involvement of Pal, Pradhan and Giri in the scam.
Baunsuni police station registered a case against the trio on June 17 for cheating the e-commerce company to the tune of Rs 38 lakh, while Kantamal police registered a case against them on July 4 for swindling Rs 1.94 lakh. Kishorenagar police in Angul also registered a case against the three for cheating Flipkart to the tune of Rs 2.90 lakh.
Pal is a native of Nayagarh district, Pradhan is from Baghamari in Khurda and Giri is a resident of Jaleswar. They were absconding since June 17, said police. “We have seized Rs 4.5 lakh cash, one Royal Enfield Bullet, another motorcycle, three mobile phones and a laptop from them. Further investigation is continuing,” Boudh SP Raj Prasad told The New Indian Express.