Seven BPCL customers in Indore are under investigation for allegedly misappropriating over Rs 5.7 crore in mistakenly deposited funds, prompting a police probe into widespread digital wallet errors.
A case of cheating has been registered against seven Indore-based customers of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) for allegedly misappropriating more than Rs 5.7 crore wrongly deposited in their digital wallets, police said on Thursday.
Police are also probing how the digital wallets of some 1,000 customers of BPCL's 'Smart Fleet' scheme were wrongly recharged with a total Rs 129.55 crore, an official said.
A case under Indian Penal Code section 420 (cheating) and other relevant provisions was registered at Kshipra police station on a complaint filed by a BPCL official, said Deputy Superintendent of Police Umakant Chaudhary.
A data analysis carried out by the public sector oil marketing company in March 2023 revealed that digital wallets of 1,093 customers across the country had been recharged for a total Rs 129.55 crore though they had not made any payments towards recharge.
The company then blocked the 'Smart Fleet' accounts of all these customers.
Vishal Singh, Shashi Singh, Dalveer Singh, Baljinder Singh, Wahid Khan, Narendra Singh Basu and Balbir Singh, all from Indore, were among these customers, said the police official.
The company asked all those whose wallets had been wrongly recharged to return the amount, but these seven persons allegedly did not return the money despite repeated communication by BPCL, said Chaudhary.
"An FIR has been registered. We are also investigating how the suspicious recharging took place," the DySP said.
BPCL's 'Smart Fleet' scheme allows transporters or truck fleet owners to purchase fuel across the country using OTP-based virtual cards.