Naresh Gujral, former Rajya Sabha MP and the son of former prime minister IK Gujral fell victim to a cyber scam after fraudsters duped his company of Rs 7.8 crore by impersonating him on a messaging app.
Scammers impersonated Gujral
According to police, the fraud occurred between June 12 and June 16. The scammers reportedly created an account in the name of Gujral on an online messaging platform and also used his photograph to make it appear genuine. They used the app to send messages instructing Gujral’s company’s chief financial officer to transfer funds via Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) to a specified bank account for what appeared to be urgent business-related purposes.
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Believing the instructions were legitimate, the employee, who had been given financial access by Gujral, executed four separate RTGS transactions over the course of four days, resulting in a loss of Rs 7.8 crore, the said.
Gujral, 78, is the son of the late I K Gujral, who served as India’s 12th prime minister from 1997 to 1998.
How was scam unearthed?
It was Gujral’s daughter who smelled a rat on June 16 and, upon checking with her father, found that he never issued any directions to transfer the said amount of money.
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“On the complaint of Naresh Gujral, an FIR has been registered on 16.06.2026. Immediate further action was taken, and Rs 4.28 crore out of the total defrauded amount of Rs 7.68 crore has been marked as a lien/hold in various banks. Efforts are being made to apprehend the persons involved in the fraud,” a senior police officer told PTI.
Money routed to different accounts
Investigators said the money was first routed into four bank accounts in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, adding that between Rs 1 crore and Rs 2 crore was transferred to these accounts each.
The funds were subsequently distributed to around 30 to 40 accounts before being moved through multiple additional mule accounts in an apparent attempt to conceal the money trail, police said.
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Cyber investigators are now tracking the movement of funds and identifying the beneficiaries of the transactions.
70 pc cash recovered
Gujral told PTI quick reporting of the scam helped police recover over 70 per cent of the stolen money.
“My company and our CFO were victims of the fraud. I was and am out of town. However since we reported the crime quickly to the cybercrime department, they helped us to recover more than 70 per cent of the amount, and they are hoping to recover more,” he said.
Police said efforts are underway to trace the remaining funds and arrest those involved in the cyber fraud.
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