Man tries to dupe HPCL dealer of Rs 60,000 posing as senior

The RCF police station on Thursday registered a case of attempt to cheating and impersonation against an unknown man for allegedly demanding money from a Hindustan Petroleum Corporation of India (HPCL) dealer posing as a senior officer of the company.

According to RCF police, on Thursday, HPCL dealer Amit Shah received a call on his landline from a man who identified himself as A C Mahajan, an independent director on the HPCL board. “The caller told Shah that he was in need of some money for the treatment of his wife and demanded Shah to deposit Rs 60,000 into his account,” said Dilip Raut, senior police inspector, RCF police station. “The caller also said that as he was a senior official from HPCL, he would be very useful to Shah in the days to come and hence Shah should help him with the money.”

Shah however smelled a rat. He made a phone call to R K Tiwary, HPCL's public grievances redressal officer in Mumbai to cross-check with the caller. Tiwary advised Shah not to deposit any money and hold on for sometime till he confirmed with his seniors. After making enquiries at his end, Tiwary called Shah back and told him that Mahajan had made no such call, hence the caller was an imposter. “After speaking to Tiwary, Shah immediately came to the police station and registered a complaint with us. We have registered a case and are investigating further. We are also checking if more HPCL dealers received such calls and whether money were demanded from them,” said Raut.