Karnataka HC rejects plea to quash FIR in Rs 69 lakh Amazon scam case

PTI, Nov 25, 2024, 11:53 AM IST

Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has dismissed a petition seeking quashing of an FIR against two individuals accused of defrauding e-commerce giant Amazon of over Rs 69 lakh.

Justice M Nagaprasanna described the case as an example of “modern age crime.” The petitioners, Sourish Bose and Deepanvita Ghosh, had sought to have the FIR and a magistrate court’s order taking cognisance of the case set aside.

The duo was booked in 2017 after an Amazon employee uncovered their alleged fraudulent activities, which had reportedly been going on for years.

According to the complaint, Bose would order high-end products from Amazon using his bank account, have them delivered to Ghosh’s address, and request a return within 24 hours. After obtaining a refund, Bose allegedly used to replace the genuine items with cheap imitations, re-packed them, and send them back to Amazon.

The prosecution stated that the return addresses were sometimes linked to Ghosh’s residence, while other times they were associated with various locations across Bengaluru.

Bose and Ghosh have been charged under Section 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code for cheating and Section 66D of the Information Technology Act, which pertains to online fraud. Their petition to quash the case was rejected by the High Court.