Ahmedabad: A Naroda courier firm approached the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) police, alleging an organized fraud involving the replacement of high-value mobiles and smartwatches with dummy devices in Flipkart deliveries, causing losses of over Rs 4.3 lakh.According to the complaint filed on Thursday, Rishabh Pal, who runs RSA Logistics in Naroda, said the fraud came to light after suspicious cancellations and tampering were flagged in late Jan. Pal’s firm handles Flipkart parcel deliveries through a technology-enabled system and employs around 60 delivery executives.
“On Jan 28, an employee informed him that two orders were cancelled and the returned items appeared tampered with. On opening the parcels, dummy mobile phones were found inside. Records showed that the parcels originally contained an Apple iPhone 17 Pro worth Rs 1.34 lakh and a Samsung S25 Ultra 5G valued at Rs 1.22 lakh, delivered to addresses in the Sardarnagar-Hansol area,” the FIR states.Further checks revealed that the deliveries were assigned to an employee named Vishal Bavri. During questioning, Bavri allegedly admitted that he, his friend Bharat Mali and two others, used Flipkart IDs to place orders at false addresses. The original devices were allegedly replaced with duplicate phones and returned as cancelled orders.Pal said repeated requests to return the original devices were ignored. An audit of cancelled parcels revealed another instance from Jan 6, involving two Apple watches worth Rs 1.79 lakh, allegedly swapped with duplicate watches before being returned.DCB officials said an FIR was registered against the accused for cheating and criminal breach of trust. Police are verifying delivery records, IMEI numbers and Flipkart account details, and are probing whether similar frauds were committed using the same modus operandi in other courier firms.
