Scam in Citi: Gupta didn’t operate solo

The arrested associate vice-president of Hero Corporate Services, Sanjay Gupta, not only duped his employers but also tried to cheat two of his own accomplices in the company, police said today.

The Gurgaon police have been questioning the two Hero group employees about their role in the scam. The company has sent them on long leave.

According to senior police officers investigating the case, Gupta had roped in a deputy manager, Ganpat Singh, and another assistant general manager, Gaurav Jain, to get more clients for Citibank relationship manager Shivraj Puri's fraudulent schemes.

"They have told us that Gupta had promised to share the amount that they would get as commission from his transactions equally," said the police. ''Accordingly, they formed a firm and opened an account in the name of 'G2S'."

The police spokesman added that the two alleged accomplices have said that Gupta, however, did not deposit most of the money he earned as commission from Puri in the G2S account. He started another investment firm, BG Finance, where he allegedly parked a large part of the commission amount.

Puri had promised Gupta Rs20 crore as commission. However, the suspended associate VP of the Hero Group allegedly received only Rs.5 crore from Puri. ''When Gaurav Jain detected this and asked Gupta why he was not keeping his promise, Gupta tried to win him over and negotiated a deal. Subsequently, they jointly bought a property in Palam Vihar worth Rs1.16 crore. Ganpat got nothing as the two colluded," one of the investigators said.