An unidentified cyber fraud stole Rs 90,000 between June and July from the bank account of 62-year-old Laila Rustom Jehangir, one of the two daughters of billionaire and business magnate, Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry, who owns one of the biggest conglomerates – the Shapoorji Pallonji group. An FIR has been registered at the Colaba police station.

As per Colaba police station, Laila, a resident of Dubai, had authorised her father – Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry, to manage her account, who authorised his Company Director, Firoz Bhatena, in 2018, to look after the  financial activities of Laila’s account. Bhatena, in turn, entrusted the account to company’s Deputy General Manager (accounts), 60-year-old Jayesh Merchant, whose mobile number was registered with the bank for SMS alerts on all bank transactions of Laila’s account. Transactions were done via cheques as the account was quite old, with no debit or credit card issued towards the bank account.

As per media sources, Jayesh Merchant, who registered the complaint, said that on July 1 and 2, 2020, he received SMS alerts of money withdrawal from Laila’s account. On checking with the bank, he was told that a total of nearly Rs. 90,000 was withdrawn across numerous transactions, via a debit card during the months of June/July.

When Merchant informed the bank manager that there was no debit card issued on this account, he was surprised to be informed that a debit card was, in fact, issued in the name of Company Director Bhatena in 2018, and the card was couriered to the company’s Colaba office. This debit card was being used to withdraw money. Bhatena too has stated that he was not aware of any debit card being issued, following which a police complaint was lodged. Based on the complaint, an FIR has been registered under section 420 (cheating) of Indian Penal Code and 66C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of Information Technology Act against an unidentified suspect. The probe is on – the police in its preliminary investigation have found that the card was used multiple times, including a restaurant and a cake shop. They would be checking the CCTVs at these places and making inquiries to trace the fraudster.