Chennai dealers in shock over fraud

In what is probably the biggest scam to have hit IT dealers in Chennai, a
fraudster has duped 35 dealers of around Rs 4 crore. Kalyana Sundaram,
Proprietor, Zen Supreme Computers is the main accused in the case.

Mylapore-based Zen Supreme Computers, registered under the name of Hemalatha,
wife of Sundaram, allegedly brought material from dealers and distributors
across Chennai using fake cheques.

After failing to recover their money, dealers registered a case with the
police. When contacted by The DQ Week the officer incharge of the investigation
at the Crime Branch Department, Police Commissionerate, Chennai informed that 29
dealers across Chennai had registered a complaint under the leadership of
Thankshuk Chand of Access Computers against Zen Supreme Computers. He further
said that the police have registered a case citing Sundaram of Zen Supreme
Computers as the primary accused in the case, and his wife-Hemalatha and brother
Balasubramanium as the co-accused.

“We are scouting for the accused. The investigation is going on and we cannot
divulge the actual amount involved in the scam until the investigation is over,”
the investigation officer informed. He also said that the investigation team is
expecting more cooperation from the dealers to nab the accused soon.

When contacted, most of the dealers who have been affected by the scam
refused to divulge any details. But market sources say that after purchasing
these goods, the fraudster is said to have sold the products to one of the big
dealers in Ritchie Street itself. When the affected dealers confronted this
person he showed them the no due certificate that he claimed to have received
from the purchaser (fraudster).

It may be noted that out of 35 dealers and distributors who have lost money,
12 of them are said to have operations in Ritchie Street. The dealers grew
suspicion, when the fraudster tried to get whatever products were available
rather than sticking to his demand. Then when the cheques started bouncing the
dealers confronted him. He accepted his fault and called them for negotiations,
but by the time the dealers went to meet him, he had disappeared.

When contacted for their side of the story most dealers refused to comment
since lots of activities were already underway to recover the money and no one
wanted to hamper the process. However, on condition of anonymity, one dealer
elaborated, “A lot of our dealers, particularly sub-distributors, have been
affected and we don't want to comment on who was involved in this from our side,
as nothing has been neither investigated nor proved. First we want to recover
the money that our dealers have lost and work for that is in process.”

While we contacted Confed-ITA for their comment about the scam, the
spokesperson expressed his sympathy for the dealer community in Chennai. He
said, “We are there to extend our help to the Chennai dealer community. It is
very sad that even after repeated cheating incidents, the dealers and
distributors are continuing to lose out to the cheats. Dealers must maintain
certain credit limit, as practiced by big distributors and shouldn't supply
products to everyone, but rather stick to only few credible people.”

Meanwhile, it is learnt that Ritchie Street dealers are planning to call for
a one-day total shutdown next week to condemn the incident.