Bengaluru | Police have opened an investigation into a cyber fraud case in which hackers are believed to have tampered with official email exchanges between Bengaluru-based Group Pharmaceuticals and Hyderabad’s Dr Reddy’s Laboratories. The attackers reportedly managed to divert a payment of about ₹2.16 crore into a fake bank account.
Dr Reddy’s Laboratories later confirmed that the company detected the fraudulent transfer in time and, with help from its banking partners, succeeded in freezing the funds, preventing any financial loss.
According to a complaint filed by Mahesh Babu K, a senior executive at Group Pharmaceuticals, the company was awaiting a payment from Dr Reddy’s for goods supplied. On November 3, hackers allegedly gained unauthorized access to the email correspondence between the two firms and sent deceptive messages to Dr Reddy’s finance department, pretending to be officials from Group Pharmaceuticals and providing false bank details.
Believing the communication to be genuine, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories transferred ₹2.16 crore on November 4 to the fraudulent account. When the scam was discovered, the complainant immediately requested the police to block the account and recover the diverted funds.
The Cyber Crime Police Station in Bengaluru registered the case on November 5 under sections of the Information Technology Act along with cheating and impersonation provisions under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Initial investigation revealed that the fraudulent account was located in Vadodara, Gujarat. Authorities said the account has now been frozen and further inquiries are in progress.
Dr Reddy’s Laboratories stated that the fraud involved impersonation of a vendor’s email address to reroute a legitimate payment and reiterated that quick intervention by its internal teams and banking partners prevented any financial loss to either party.
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