Mumbai: The Mumbai University (MU) has registered an offence of cheating after its PAN card and GST number were used to create a fake account on a shopping portal to sell books online.
The offence came to light after the university tried to open its official account, however they were not allowed to open an account as there was already an account with same name and details.
According to the FIR registered at the Azad Maidan police station, MU Vise Chancellor (VC) asked its officials to open an account on the portal to sell books. When a printing and publishing department officer tried to open the account in last December, his request was declined.
The officer raised a complaint through email. The portal replied the university’s account already existed, and shockingly the MU’s PAN and GST details were used to create the account to sell the books. The concerned person used his own Gmail account to create the fake account.
The university then asked the portal to suspend the account, but portal said they need to register an FIR after which the university approached the Azad Maidan police station and lodged a case.
“We have registered an offence under IPC sections for cheating (420), cheating by impersonation (419) and under the IT Act, and investigation is on,” said a senior police official.
“Since, the university’s PAN and GST number were used, role of insider could not be ruled out,” the cop added.