Former Rajya Sabha MP Naresh Gujral loses ₹7.68 crore in cyber fraud
Former Rajya Sabha MP Naresh Gujral was defrauded of ₹7.68 crore after cyber criminals impersonated him on a messaging platform and tricked an employee into transferring funds, police said on Thursday.
Mr. Gujral, 78, is the son of former Prime Minister I.K. Gujral, who served from April 1997 to March 1998.
According to police, the fraud occurred between June 12 and June 16. An employee authorised to handle Mr. Gujral's financial transactions was contacted through a social media messaging account that used Mr. Gujral's photograph.
The fraudsters sent messages instructing the employee to transfer money via Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) for what appeared to be urgent business needs.
Believing the instructions to be genuine, the employee carried out four RTGS transactions over four days, transferring a total of ₹7.68 crore to accounts specified by the fraudsters.
The fraud was discovered on June 16 when Mr. Gujral's daughter noticed the transactions. Upon verification, it was confirmed that Mr. Gujral had not issued such instructions.
Based on Mr. Gujral's complaint, an FIR was registered the same day. Police said immediate steps were taken to trace the funds.
“An amount of ₹4.28 crore out of the total defrauded sum has been marked as lien in various banks. Efforts are on to apprehend those involved,” a senior police officer said.
