A delivery executive working with an e-commerce firm has been accused of swindling 10 iPhones by replacing the products with dummy phones while en route to the customer. According to the police, the delivery executive received a customer parcel containing 10 iPhones and an AirPods on 27th March 2021. Instead of delivering the parcel, he replaced the iPhones with replicas and sent his brother to deposit them back to the company, claiming that the customer could not be contacted.
E-commerce Delivery Executive Involved in Stealing Ten iPhones
The fraudulent act came to light when the station in-charge of Matrix Finance Solution, which delivers Amazon’s parcels, noticed some tampering with the packaging. The company opened the parcel and found non-functional fake phones instead of the original iPhones inside. The customer, upon not receiving the actual package, also cancelled the order. Following the complaint, an FIR was registered against Lalit, the delivery executive, under sections 420 (cheating) and 408 (criminal breach of trust by an employee) of the Indian Penal Code at Bilaspur police station on Wednesday.
Deputy Minister of IT Says Apple Could Expand Investments in India
Despite the incident’s negative impact on the e-commerce industry, Apple is looking to expand its investments in India. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the deputy minister for information technology, mentioned that Apple could double or triple its investments in India in the next few years, along with exports. The US tech giant company has recently launched a second store in the world’s biggest smartphone market after China. Apple, which mainly assembles iPhones in India through Taiwan contract manufacturers, plans to expand into iPads and AirPods to reduce its reliance on China.
Data from the India Cellular and Electronics Association reveals that Apple’s iPhones amounted to over half of the total smartphones worth about $9 billion exported from India between April 2022 and February. With these promising prospects, Apple could further consolidate its market position in one of the world’s largest and rapidly developing economies.
