Courier staff arrested for stealing online products

Eight employees of a courier firm, who have allegedly been spiriting away expensive products including mobile phones and other electronic gadgets that customers ordered online, were arrested after running the racket for nearly six months. They allegedly forged customers’ signature on the delivery form and sold these at a much cheaper price in grey market, police said.  

Sankar Nagar police arrested the eight – M Vignesh Pandian (28) and A Prakash (23) of Chromepet, P Prakash (27) of Madipakkam, R Ramesh (25) of Tiruvannamalai, M Subramani (27) and V Ashok Kumar (28) of Nandambakkam, D Dhanasekar (24) of Tindivanam, and T Nandakumar (23) of Pammal – who were later remanded in custody. 

For the past few months, Praveen, manager of the courier firm in Nagalkeni near Pallavaram, have been inundated with complaints from those who ordered merchandise from leading e-retailer Amazon, reporting that they were yet to receive the various products including mobile phones and other electronic gadgets. But when he enquired the delivery personnel, they maintained that the packages were delivered on time and showed customers’ signatures on the delivery vouchers to substantiate their claim.However, growing suspicious, the manager filed a complaint with Sankar Nagar police. A detailed investigation revealed that the delivery staff had connived with the staff working at the godown to steal the merchandise. Later, these were sold for much lower price, said police officers, who believe that the gang has been doing this for the past six months. 

According to police, the delivery boys Subramani, Dhanasekar, A Prakash, Nandakumar and Ashok Kumar faked customers’ signatures by getting the vouchers signed by their friends. In all, products worth Rs 9 lakh is estimated to have been stolen by the gang. The police team seized Rs 5.2 lakh from the gang.