The Special Task Force of Madhya Pradesh police on Wednesday arrested four employees of Amazon's Gwalior distribution centre for allegedly siphoning off mobile phones and precious electronic goods before delivery to the end customer.
On a complaint from Amazon India, Madhya Pradesh police had assigned the investigation into the alleged theft of electronic goods to the STF. The STF in a detailed inquiry found that the fraud was committed at the distribution of centre of Amazon itself.
According to police, it was found that four employees of the Gwalior distribution centre, including its manager, were part of the racket which used to fraudulently generate reports of missing goods between Amazon's Delhi hub and Gwalior centre. The manager took care in reporting only fifteen per cent of such goods as missing to avoid any suspicion.
During last three months, goods worth over Rs 1.5 crore were siphoned to private businessmen who in turn sold those items to general customers. According to STF Inspector Aijaz Khan’s statement to media, “We found that goods sent from Gurgaon hub of Amazon were claimed as missing but actually they landed up with a few businessmen. The IMIE numbers of missing phones were traced to certain individuals who claimed that they had bought them from shopkeekers of Gwalior’’.
Police arrested Neeraj Chourasia, owner of SS Mobile shop and Aditya Agarwal of Morena who used to purchase goods from the employees of the distribution centre. Later the manager Sahil Gupta and team leader Upendra Dubey, along with two others, were also arrested. All of them were remanded to judicial custody.
Police confiscated 26 mobiles and two laptops from the accused who had been duping the company through this modus operendi for last six months. Nearly a thousand of such electronic items were siphoned during last six months.