India’s number one apparel exporter Shahi Exports has faced cybercrime worth Rs.27.61 crore and police have arrested 10 people in this regard.
Some of the accused included former clerks and employees of the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) well-versed in the technicalities and working of the DGFT.
The police have so far recovered six mobile phones, two laptops, a computer and Rs. 20,000 cash. The accused had confessed to committing similar frauds with other companies, whose details are being probed.
As per police, the fraudsters were highly sophisticated and they had secured a 154 Rebate of State and Central Levies and Taxes (ROSCTL) worth Rs. 27.61 crore of Shahi Exports and had been transferring them to fake and fictitious firms opened by them and encashing them.
Fraudsters used to fraudulently secure codes of big exim firms and by checking their records, used to ascertain the money in their accounts as well as the value of the ROSCTL coupons they happened to be entitled to, before targeting them.
The ROSCTL scheme allows companies to get rebate in excise and custom duties and these ROSCTL licences happen to be akin to digital coupons worth several lakh rupees entitling the firm to get rebates in taxes and duties.
The accused had used a fake digital signature certificate (DSC) of the Director of Shahi Exports and allegedly transferred 154 duty licences worth Rs. 27.61 crore, which the company had received as rebate for exports and trade, to a bogus company created in his name by the accused.
The police probe found that the accused used to check the import export code (IEC) of companies and their records to find out the amount of licences available in their account.
The accused used to forge documents in the name of director or proprietor of that company and through the documents, they used to create a DSC by conducting a video shoot from one of their accomplices.
“Using this fake DSC, they used to transfer the licences to their bogus company. The accused used a similar modus operandi and created a fake DSC of Harshit Ahuja, MD of Shahi Exports. The accused impersonated as Ahuja and used a fake DSC to transfer 154 licences worth Rs. 27.61 crore from the complainant company into another fake account created for this purpose,” police said.