Naresh Gujral, a former Rajya Sabha MP and the son of former Prime Minister (PM) Inder Kumar Gujral, recently fell prey to a sophisticated cyber fraud in which crooks duped his company of as much as Rs 7.68 crore, the police said.

According to police, the scammers allegedly impersonated him on a messaging platform, and asked one of his employees to transfer the funds into the bank accounts given by them. However, after the fraud came to light, police said they have managed to freeze Rs 4.28 crore and are persevering in efforts to recover the remaining funds.

Crooks create Gujral’s fake account

Sources familiar with the incident said the fraud unfolded between June 12 and June 16, 2026, when the crooks created a fake account using Gujral’s display picture and name. According to investigating police personnel, the cyber cheats posed as the former parliamentarian and contacted an employee authorised to handle financial transactions within his company.

Accused send series of messages to employee

Police said the scammers sent a series of messages to the company’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), directing him to transfer funds through Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) transactions for what appeared to be urgent business purposes.

The CFO, who believed that the messages were sent by Gujral himself, allegedly executed four separate RTGS transfers over four days, amounting to Rs 7.68 crore. He sent the funds into bank accounts controlled by fraudsters.

On June 16, Gujral’s daughter noticed the large transactions and sought clarification from her father. It then came to light that he had never issued any such payment instructions.

Swift police complaint helps freeze funds

Gujral immediately lodged a police complaint, following which they registered a First Information Report (FIR) on June 16 and immediately launched a probe. A senior police officer said authorities were able to hold on Rs 4.28 crore across multiple bank accounts.

The investigating police personnel said that the defrauded money was initially transferred into four bank accounts located in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Each account reportedly received between Rs 1 crore and Rs 2 crore before the money was further dispersed.

Funds routed through multiple mule accounts to evade cops

According to police, the accused allegedly routed the money through 40 different bank accounts in an attempt to conceal the trail and complicate recovery efforts. Cyber-crime specialists are now tracing the transactions and are working to identify the accused. Gujral, in an interaction with news agency PTI, credited the prompt reporting of the incident for the recovery achieved so far.