Ex-employee behind Paytm fraud case: CBI

A former employee of e-payment platform Paytm has been named in a charge sheet by the CBI for allegedly cheating the company by using its system of generating employee IDs and default passwords.

Sawan Narender Aware has been charged by the agency along with five more accomplices under IPC sections related to criminal conspiracy, cheating and violation of Information Technology Act, a CBI official said.

The probe found that Sawan, who was well aware about the refund process, lured customers of various products with attractive discounts ranging from 20 per cent to 50 per cent on various products sold through the Paytm website, the agency has alleged.

The CBI has charged Sawan, who worked with the company for about two months before he quit and started this alleged fraud, along with Suraj Thakur, Purushottam Yadav, Deepak Yadav, Tushar Rewaria and Rajesh Meho, officials said.

Sawan generated 100 per cent discount from the company system for the products purchased by the customer without any return of the product, the CBI alleged in its charge sheet filed in the Saket court.

It was done through stolen credentials of the Paytm employees as the person had knowledge of the generation of system IDs for the employees and default passwords using trial and hit method, the agency has alleged.

Once refunds were generated, the amount was collected from the customer after deducting the promised discount, it alleged.

In the charge sheet, the CBI claimed that refund should not have been generated since delivery of the products was made to the customers and they were satisfied with the products, officials said.

These refunds made through different Paytm wallets and bank accounts resulted in the loss of Rs 11 lakh between August 2015 and May 2015 which was detected during the account reconciliation exercise, the agency alleged.

The CBI registered three separate FIRs in the matter and filed charge sheets in all three of them, the CBI sources said.