PCAIT effort brings absconding Sanjay Gupta of Gravis to justice

Putting an end to his run, Sanjay Gupta of Gravis Computers
was arrested in the early morning of February 15 from his hideout in Ghaziabad.
A team of three people from the economic offences wing (EoW) in plain clothes
went ahead to execute this operation along with an enthusiastic team of around
10 senior channel players from PCAIT. 

It was an honest and persistent effort put in by various
members of PCAIT, the New Delhi-based IT channel association that has
contributed heavily to the arrest of Sanjay Gupta. Their dedication could be
seen from the fact that around 10 PCAIT members made sure that they witness the
arrest of Sanjay Gupta and reached the spot early morning. 

"There were people who came in from Gurgaon and other
far off places just to see him get nabbed by the police. We cannot single out
anyone for handling this case. All members have done their bit to come out with
this result. Loss of money was not an issue, it was the loss of trust that was
hurting us most as we knew this guy for quite sometime and even then he cheated
on us heavily," explains, a source close to Delhi-based IT channel
community. 

Coordinated effort and teamwork

The operation was not planned in a single day. It required thorough planning
that contributed heavily towards flawless execution of this operation. After
having got a tip off about the whereabouts of Sanjay, two members of the PCAIT
executive council went up to the Ghaziabad area where his apartment is based and
conducted a detailed survey about the location.

"We wanted to gather as much information as possible,
because in such cases, information about location where the accused is staying
is very critical for the success of the operation. Once we were inside Parsvnath
Apartments, we just looked around for possible locations where could be found.
Interestingly there is a cyber café and we just went inside and saw Sanjay
Gupta sitting inside the cafe," adds one channel partner on conditions of
anonymity. 

Taken aback by the presence of these two visitors, Sanjay
played safe and asked them to have a cup of tea at his place. "He took us
to his place and we even had a cup of tea with him. Even then, he was not
accepting the fact that he owed around Rs 55 lakh to the PCAIT members. After
spending some time with him we came back and gave this information to PCAIT,"
informs a member who went in for this

operation. 

Once local intelligence was collected, it was quite easy to
execute the operation as the EoW sleuths were already in a position to cordon
off the area in order to arrest Sanjay. On the morning of February 15, the
police team comprising of three officers in plain clothes, along with around 15
PCAIT members reached Ghaziabad's New Parsavnath Apartments early morning.
Later on Sanjay was nabbed from his ground floor C-41 apartment, where he was
staying with his wife and three kids. Consequently, Sanjay was taken to the
Economic Offences Wing (EoW) office and later on produced before the Judicial
Magistrate, RK Singh. As of now he has been given three days of police custody
till Saturday. After this, he is likely to be shifted to the Tihar Jail.

A lesson for defaulters

While members of PCAIT are not congratulating each other much on this,
however the manner in which the association has handled the whole issue is more
than appreciative. More so, if we keep in mind the enthusiasm shown by people
who are not even affected by this duping case have contributed a lot to Sanjay's
arrest. And an excellent case of teamwork as well, which is an important lesson
to be learnt as a channel partner mentioned. 

As Sanjay's case unfolds, it should prove to be a lesson
for those who believe in cheating people from the channel community and also
that getting away in such cases is not that easy as it may seem.

"We want to give a clear message to people in the
channel community. First of all, no one should think on the lines of cheating
someone. However, if someone is bent upon doing such things, they should not
forget that there are people in the channel as well as in the police - EoW who
will work hard to see that justice is done and culprits get nabbed," adds
another prominent channel partner from the Delhi region.

There are times when different channel players bend business
dynamics within channel to get things done at their own risk. Sometimes this
provides 'holes' to the overall business environment and greedy people get
prompted towards cheating their own community. This can be stopped with regular
updates and sharing information within the vibrant channel community. 

It may be recalled that it was in June 2005 when about 20 channel partners of
Nehru Place were cheated by one of their own trusted one. It is believed that
Sanjay Gupta of Gravis Computers duped different channel players of more than Rs
2 crore. Out of this money, Rs 55 lakh came from PCAIT members.