Parth Sharma and Aryaveer Singh were arrested in Ahmedabad for swapping 1,073 pairs of shoes with counterfeits worth Rs 84 lakhs.
Matar police arrested both of them for the crime.
They used simple yet audacious tactics to execute this fraud. They replaced 1,073 pairs of shoes with counterfeit shoes between June 26, 2023, and March 15, 2024.
Those shoes were bought online by customers and the footwear was returned to the firm over nine months. The enforcement officer with Instacart Services Private Ltd, Ateeq Ahmed Syed found this alarming on March 21 and filed an FIR.
This raised a big concern for the firm so they started finding out the reason behind this.
The shoes were bought through an online shopping portal. An enquiry revealed that a man named Parth Sharma had used 500 different IDs on the website to buy two top models of shoes. He would return it replacing the original pair with counterfeit ones, causing the firm a loss of Rs 84 lakh.
Ateeq Ahmed Syed, Enforcement Officer, Instacart Services Private Ltd
After investigation, the shoes were found counterfeit, and the fraud was traced to a small city Kheda in Gujarat.
According to inspector Keval Vakaria of the Matar police, both the accused met through social media platform an year ago.
According to Sharma, it was Singh's idea to purchase original shoes and replace them with counterfeit ones. Sharma would purchase shoes and swap them within 15 days. He would call the delivery person at various locations to avoid disclosing his exact address.
Keval Vakaria, Inspector, Matar Police
A complaint is filed against Sharma and Singh for forgery with purpose of cheating, producing fake documents as genuine and criminal conspiracy.
(Input from various media sources)
(Rehash/ Dr Pragati Priya/MSM)
