Oops: Scamsters posing as Adar Poonawalla dupe Serum Institute of India of over Rs 1 crore
As per official records, the scamsters posed as Poonawala and sent WhatsApp messages to Deshpande and asked to transfer money to various bank accounts immediately.
Pune: An FIR was launched against some unidentified persons for cheating the Serum Institute of India for more than Rs. 1 crore, said the officials on Sunday.
The fraudsters duped the SII in the name of the institute's CEO Adar Poonawalla. The incident came to light only after a hefty amount of Rs. 1.1 crore was transferred by one of the directors, Satish Deshpande.
As per official records, the scamsters posed as Poonawalla and sent WhatsApp messages to Deshpande and asked to transfer money to various bank accounts immediately.
Believing that messages are from Adar Poonawalla more than Rs. 1,01, 01,554 crore was transferred to those accounts by the finance department in different transactions, only to belatedly realise that the SII was duped.
"After realising that Adar Poonawalla had never asked for such transfers or sent messages to the Finance Manager of SII made a written complaint in Bundgarden police station and later, police registered an FIR under the section of IPC 419, 420,34 and IT Act for probing the case further," said Pune Police.
The transactions were made on September 7 and 8 this year.
Further investigations are underway.
Serum Institute of India is an Indian biotechnology and biopharmaceuticals company headquartered in Pune, India. The company was founded by Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla in 1966.
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