The accused student, Chirag Gupta from Indore in Madhya Pradesh, studies in a reputed college near Yeshwantpur. He was released on station bail. Chirag’s friends — all 12 are engineering students — have been issued notices to appear before police.
DCP (north) Shivaprakash Devaraju stated that Amazon representatives had filed a complaint in May, accusing miscreants of cheating the company by getting refunds for electronic gadgets without returning them.
“Chirag Gupta booked four iPhones between May 15 and May 17 and made online payments. However, our systems showed he was refunded for all the four phones costing over Rs 3.7 lakh. On inspection, we found that the four iPhones were not returned to our warehouse. We met Chirag who confessed to having cheated us by getting the refunds without returning the mobiles. We found that Chirag and some miscreants were ensuring that that our website reflected the products had been returned,” Paramesh HD, zonal manager with Amazon, stated in his complaint to Yeshwantpur police.
Police suspect insider role
“We have directed Amazon representatives to share details of staffers who are handling the website and related issues. We feel the cheating wouldn’t have been possible without insider role,” Devaraju said.
Devaraju said Chirag and his friends were acting on instructions from the prime suspects. “The students knew well that they were cheating Amazon. Also, the prime suspects paid them a commission of 15-20% on the cost of the phones,” Devaraju said.
Police have seized 16 iPhones, two MacBook laptops, one mobile phone, one desktop with hard disk and one air cooler, all booked through Amazon and marked for return, from Chirag and his friends. The products are worth over Rs 20 lakh.