JAIPUR, INDIA: The incidents involving dealers collecting credit from the market and eloping with the accumulated capital seems to be on rise in the IT industry. Recently, a dealer in Jaipur—Priya Export House who was dealing in IT peripherals and garments, has absconded from the market with approximately Rs. 40 lakh.

The company, which was operating in Jaipur for the last four months was started by Karan Singh Deol at Central Apartment, Vidhyadhar Nagar. Total cash that Priya Export House managed to collect from IT dealers amounts to Rs. 10 lakh. The company was managed by 10 employees.

The dealers who have been reportedly cheated by Priya Export House are Cyberash, Universal Computers, Pragyan Computers, Suraj Computers, Common Computers and AV Technology.

Among these dealers, Cyberash, Universal Computers and Suraj Computers, who have been duped of Rs. 2.85 lakh, Rs. 4 lakh and Rs. 84,000 respectively, have filed a FIR against Deol at Vidhyadhar Nagar police station.

According to market resources, Priya Export used to do business in Chandigarh before coming to Jaipur. He supplied products to dealers in Delhi and Ghaziabad at lower prices. Dealers informed that in Chandigarh also Deol had duped around five dealers and then shifted base to Jaipur.

Somendra Harsha of Cyberash Computers shared that when he went to the office of Priya Export House for payment collection he was informed that the company’s owner had vanished overnight.

Sanjay Rathore of Universal Computers shared that the Jaipur police is investigating the matter and has traced the accused to Delhi by tracking a ration card sanctioned in Hyderabad. The police are tracking his details from Hyderabad also.

Rathore further informed that according to the information given by the employees of the company, Deol used nine SIM cards out of which four have been traced and the rest are not functioning.

When enquired Nauhar Singh, one of the employees of Priya Export House who was in-charge of the purchase orders of dealers, informed that the employees did not have any idea about the fraudulent nature of the company and no one had a clue about the whereabouts of the owner.

“I was a senior person at the company. When dealers came to me enquiring about their payments I discovered that all the phone numbers of Deol were unavailable. I, along with other employees, went to Balaji Computers in Delhi to whom we use to supply considerable amount of stock. That’s when we came to know that our owner had fled with all the cash and we had been duped. We have not got our complete salaries also and I am jobless,” shared Singh.

According to Arinjay Jain, Secretary, Rajasthan Computer Traders’ Association (RCTA), “I personally made a visit to the office of Priya Export House. On analyzing the working condition there, one could easily conclude that the company is not going to last for long. I had shared this with other dealers in Jaipur also but before anybody could get any wiser he vanished.”

Such incidents related to fraudulent activities indicate that channel partners having a creditworthy business in the IT industry must look into the accounts of new dealers to whom they supply products. Before taking a new company into confidence a thorough investigation is very essential rather than supplying stock instantly.

When enquired with Rathore from Universal Computers regarding investigation about the credit worthiness of a company before selling the stock, he shared, “There was no reason for not trusting him. He first purchased stock of Rs. 2 lakh and paid a part of it the next day through cheque. He again purchased stock of Rs. 4 lakh and paid a portion of the amount. This way he kept on purchasing orders and making part payments and the balance kept on piling up. In all he bought stock worth Rs. 15 lakh from me. He paid back Rs. 11 lakh and fled with the remaining Rs. four lakh.”

The police sealed the company after dealers filed an FIR.