Monday blues got a shade darker for computer dealers in the twin cities of
Hyderabad-Secunderabad. On July 5, some of the premier resellers woke up to the
news of being duped of products estimated to be worth Rs 60 lakh and the figure
is likely to touch Rs 1 crore as the case unravels.
Bethel Charitable Trust front-ended by Dennis Jacob and Alexander bought
computers, fax machines and cellphones from the dealers stating that the Trust
is involved in social service and will be using the equipment for the benefit of
youth. The resellers discovered that they have been duped, only when the cheques
drawn on HSBC for the purchases made by the Trust went for realization in the
clearing on July 5. So far six cases have been registered against the Trust and
its emplo-yees at the Sanjeev Reddy Nagar police station.
The affected group of deal-ers including SV Electronics, Sara Infoway, 21st
Century, Total Power Solutions are doing the rounds of the police station with a
representation to the commi-ssioner RP Singh and pulling all strings in an
effort to bring the culprits to book. The investiga-tions are on and it might be
a while before the real picture emerges. "However, it appears like a
well-executed gang ope-ration," said KVR Menon of Orient Computers.
TCCDA is moving fast on the issue and has circulated the news in the market
to check and crosscheck all goods that come for resale. "Still, the con-cern
is that these goods can eas-ily be transported and sold in Bangalore or Chennai
market and there is no way one can alert all channel partners in south
India," he added.
A duping case of such im-pact has struck Hyderabad after a gap of two years.
The Trust was operating from a furnished decent office in Sanjeev Reddy Nagar-which
was found vacant on July 5 with no whereabouts of cul-prits. At this point of
time it is difficult to deduce if the go-ods can be traced back mean-while
Hyderabad dealers are back to being cautious. All big orders will go through the
microscope now.
Nandita Singh
Hyderabad (CyberMedia News)