Fly-by-night dealer targets Jaipur

Jaipur

Aug 4, 2008

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.