Police registered a case after fraudsters allegedly duped a retired Haryana government employee of ₹ 81 lakh by luring him into a bulk supply deal for a herbal liquid, promising a large purchase after laboratory testing.
The complainant, a resident of Zirakpur and a retired employee of the Haryana civil aviation department, approached police after filing complaints on the national cybercrime portal. Police and banks have frozen and recovered ₹ 20 lakh from primary and secondary accounts, leaving ₹ 60 lakh yet to be recovered, according to the complaint.
The complainant alleged that the people involved used bank accounts in Delhi and Mumbai, including accounts held in family members’ names, to receive and move the money despite the main business being based in Harda. The alleged fraud began in September 2024, when Poonam Sharma, proprietor of Sharma Enterprises in Harda, Madhya Pradesh, approached the victim with a proposal involving Manihot Bekum liquid (commercial herbal extract), according to the complaint. The accused allegedly asked him to purchase a 300 ml sample for ₹ 65,000 and courier it to a laboratory scientist in Mumbai for testing. The victim transferred around ₹ 80 lakh through net banking and UPI transactions to 11 designated accounts, according to the complaint. Investigators traced ₹ 29 lakh to HDFC Bank accounts linked to Prem Chand Krishan Kumar and Shri Krishna Trading Company in New Delhi.
