The Cyber Cell of the Delhi police has busted a gang that stole duty rebate licenses of multiple export firms, officials said on Monday. Seven people have been arrested.
The accused allegedly stole the licenses from the website of the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) using fake Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) keys, and then sold them to multiple beneficiaries.
They allegedly made fake DSC keys of over 100 export firms, and licenses worth ₹3.4 crore were siphoned.
The police started a probe after they received complaints last year from four garment export firms.
As per government guidelines, export firms are entitled to certain benefits as incentive to encourage inflow of foreign exchange, these include Duty Draw Back, which is transferred online to the exporter’s account.
The process requires a secret DSC key and is done entirely on DGFT’s website.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber Cell) Anyesh Roy said: “One of the accused is a certified chartered accountant... They used fake documents and impersonated company directors to get the keys. They used the keys to log into the DGFT site and generated rebate licenses, which they transferred to fictitious firms and subsequently sold to genuine export-import companies,” he said.
Probe revealed that the DGFT empanelled firms tasked with generating DSC keys were not doing due diligence in respect of document verification of firms applying for the keys, the DCP said.
