Ordering online? Make sure you get the original product

KOLKATA: Did the newly acquired mobile phone that you had ordered online develop snags hours after it had arrived at your doorstep? May be the delivery executive had a role to play in piling the misery on you.


Kasba Police has busted a gang of delivery executives who used to work for e-commerce giants but replaced the costly electronic gadgets with their cheap Chinese versions before delivering them to customers. The investigation has led cops to an electronics dealer in the Bidhan Sarani area who accepted the expensive items and replaced them with Chinese devices. So far, four persons have been arrested.

According to police sources, the cops got going after an FIR was registered on August 14 on the complaint of one

Om Prakash Singh

(30), the team leader with an e-commerce firm at Sarat Ghosh Garden Road at Kasba. Singh alleged that at least two delivery boys of their firm — Subho Acharya

(25), a resident of Shyampukur, and Gariahat’s Mahesh Kumar Hela (23) — had conspired with some others and misappropriated six high-end mobile phones, which they were supposed to deliver to customers, causing a loss of Rs 2,76,080 to the company. IPC sections 408 (criminal breach of trust) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) were slapped on the duo and they were arrested from near Acropolis Mall on Rashbehari Connector.

After recording their statements, the investigators arrested Rohit Das

(24) from his rented flat at Baguihati. After interrogating Das, the cops finally arrested the kingpin of this racket — Danis Ali (21), a resident of Bidhan Sarani — on Independence Day.

“We have seized a travel bag containing 16 China-made mobile phones in sealed packs. Ali claimed these were to be used by them to replace the originals and deliver to customers,”said DC (SSD) Santosh

Nimbalkar

.

Sources said the accused also spoke of a godown where Ali used to store an entire stock of such cheap mobile phones. “Preparations are being made to produce all the four accused persons before court with a prayer for police custody,” said an investigating officer.

For its part, the ecommerce company said: “We have a zero-tolerance policy on incidents that impact customer trust. We conducted an internal investigation into this case and put all efforts to find out the real facts. Finally, we zeroed in on the two delivery boys before approaching police. Meanwhile, as a responsible marketplace, we are ascertaining if money will be refunded to customers in good faith.”