New Delhi | Former Rajya Sabha MP Naresh Gujral was allegedly duped of Rs 7.8 crore after scammers impersonated him on an online messaging application and tricked his company's financial staff into transferring funds, police said on Thursday.
Naresh Gujral, 78, is the son of the late Inder Kumar Gujral, who served as India's 12th prime minister from 1997 to 1998.
An e-FIR in connection with the fraud was filed with the Delhi Police on Tuesday, prompting an investigation.
According to police, the fraud occurred between June 12 and June 16. During this period, the scammers created an account on an online messaging platform using Naresh Gujral's display picture to impersonate him.
They sent messages instructing one of his employees to transfer funds via Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) to a specified bank account for what appeared to be urgent business-related purposes.
Believing the instructions were legitimate, the employee, who had been given financial access by Gujral, executed four separate RTGS transactions over the course of four days, resulting in a loss of Rs 7.8 crore, police said.
The scam was uncovered on June 16 when the transactions came to the attention of Gujral's daughter, who immediately verified the situation with her father.
Naresh Gujral denied issuing any such directions and expressed no knowledge of the transfers, following which the family and company staff realised they had fallen prey to an impersonation scam, police said.
Investigators noted that swift action helped authorities freeze nearly Rs 4 crore, around 70 per cent of the defrauded amount, by placing a lien on multiple accounts linked to the fraud.
Police are now tracing the money trail and identifying the beneficiaries of the transactions.
