Indore (Madhya Pradesh) [India], April 3 (ANI): A major financial fraud involving Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) has come to light, with allegations of cheating amounting to nearly Rs 129.55 crore by 1093 individuals across the country over the past few years.

Of these, seven such individuals from Madhya Pradesh's Indore district are accused of cheating the company of approximately Rs 5.72 crore, and a case has been registered against them at Kshipra police station in the district.

The matter came to light after a BPCL official approached the police station and submitted a written application on March 31, highlighting forgery in BPCL's digital payment system and alleged manipulation in transactions routed through a payment gateway.

DSP rural Umakant Chaudhary told ANI, 'There is a BPCL depot under the jurisdiction of Kshipra police station here and BPCL's Regional Manager (Retail) submitted a written complaint on March 31 stating forgery in their payment system. Seven individuals from Indore had been continuously procuring petrol and diesel since 2023 through the fleet cards issued by the company without having the payment debited. Even after notices were issued by BPCL, they did not make the payment, and fraud of approximately Rs 5.72 crores has been committed.'

'Based on the complaint, a case has been registered against seven people under sections 420 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Kshipra police station and began investigation into the matter,' he said.

The officer further explained, 'BPCL had launched a scheme in 2021 under which, through its loyalty application, it issued cards to transporters (Business-to-Business, B2B) and individuals (Business-to-Customer, B2C). In this, certain details were filled, and BPCL used to debit payments directly from their bank accounts through the Razorpay payment gateway. Since 2023, the accused had been taking petrol and diesel using these cards, but the payment that was supposed to be debited from their bank accounts was not processed.'

'BPCL officials also stated in the complaint that when it received this information from the Razorpay team, it conducted an investigation and found that 1,093 such cardholders across the country had committed similar fraud, causing a loss of Rs 129.55 crore to the company. Out of this, seven individuals from Indore committed fraud of Rs 5.72 crore, against whom a case has been registered and the matter has been taken up for investigation,' DSP Chaudhary said.

The seven accused individuals from Indore include Vishal Singh, Shashi Singh, Dalwar Singh, Baljindar Singh, Vahid Khan, Narendra Singh Basu and Balveer Singh. Further investigation into the matter is underway, and action will be taken based on the facts accordingly, he added. (ANI)