The police in Bengaluru have cracked a major financial fraud involving email spoofing and fraudulent diversion of funds from Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical major Dr Reddy's Laboratories, successfully recovering Rs 2.16 crore siphoned off by cybercriminals.
According to police officials, the fraud was executed by cybercriminals operating from abroad, who created a spoofed email ID closely resembling the official business email used for transactions between Dr. Reddy's Laboratories and Bengaluru's Group Pharmaceuticals company.
According to a case filed on November 5 last year, Group Pharmaceuticals was due to receive a payment of Rs 2.16 crore from Dr. Reddy's Laboratories for goods supplied. However, on November 3, unknown hackers allegedly gained unauthorised access to the email correspondence between the two companies and sent fraudulent emails to Dr. Reddy's finance team from a fake email ID closely resembling the genuine company address.
The funds were diverted in a phased manner into a mule bank account maintained at a Bank of Baroda branch in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
Based on the complaint, Cyber Crime Police immediately issued a notice to the bank, leading to the swift freezing of the suspicious account and preventing further withdrawal or misuse of the funds.
Investigation revealed that the mule account was held in the name of an elderly Indian woman, who was allegedly used as a conduit for the fraudulent transaction. Further probe confirmed that the spoofed email ID used to carry out the fraud was created and operated from Nigeria.
The police stated that the email ID was specifically created for this fraud.
Following due legal procedures, the court passed an order on January 5, 2026, directing the release of the frozen funds.
Subsequently, the entire amount of Rs 2.16 crore was successfully refunded to Dr. Reddy's Laboratories.
Police said efforts are ongoing to identify, trace, and apprehend the accused involved in the international cyber fraud network, and further investigation is underway.
