Fraudsters Dupe SII of Over Rs 1 Crore by Posing as CEO Poonawalla on WhatsApp

SII CEO Adar Poonawalla.

(Photo Courtesy: Serum Institute)

Pune-based vaccine manufacturer Serum Institute of India (SII) has been duped of more than Rs 1 crore by fraudsters who asked for a money transfer posing as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Adar Poonawalla on WhatsApp.

The police said that the incident took place between last Wednesday and Thursday.

The company's finance manager has since lodged a police complaint. A first information report (FIR) has been registered for charges including cheating and offences under the Information Technology Act, senior inspector Pratap Mankar told PTI.

According to the complaint, Satish Deshpande, the director of SII's finance department, had received WhatsApp messages from a person who posed as the company's CEO.

The sender asked the official to immediately transfer money to certain bank accounts. Believing that the sender was Poonawalla, the company then transferred Rs 1,01,01,554 in the online mode, only to realize later that Poonawalla had never sent any such WhatsApp communication.

Further investigation is going on in the case, said inspector Mankar.

SII had shot to fame in 2021 after it launched and manufactured millions of doses of Covishield vaccines to combat the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide.

(With inputs from PTI.)