iPhones, AirPods Replaced With Replicas by E-Commerce Delivery Executive in Gurugram

A delivery executive of an e-commerce firm allegedly stole 10 iPhones by replacing them with dummy phones on the way to deliver them to the customer here, police said on Thursday.

Station in-charge of Matrix Finance Solution, which delivers Amazon's parcel, Ravi in his complaint alleged that on March 27 delivery executive Lalit was handed over a customer's parcel, which contained 10 iPhones and an AirPods, at his address, they said.

However, instead of delivering the parcel, Lalit replaced the iPhones with replicas and sent his brother Manoj to deposit them back to the company claiming that the customer could not be contacted, Ravi said in his complaint.

Suspecting some tampering with the packaging, the parcel was opened and the delivery company found the fake phones inside, police said.

Meanwhile, upon not receiving his parcel, the customer also cancelled his order, they said.

An FIR has been registered against Lalit under sections 420 (cheating), 408 (criminal breach of trust by employee) of the Indian Penal Code at Bilaspur police station on Wednesday, they said.

Efforts are on to nab the accused who is absconding, they said.

Meanwhile, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the deputy minister for information technology, said that the US tech giant Apple could double or triple investments in India, along with exports, over the next few years as the company opened a second store in the world's biggest smartphone market after China.

Apple mainly assembles iPhones in India through Taiwan contract manufacturers but plans to expand into iPads and AirPods, as it looks to cut reliance on China.

Its iPhones made up more than half of total smartphones worth about $9 billion (roughly Rs. 74,000 crore) exported from India between April 2022 and February, data from the India Cellular and Electronics Association shows.