The CBI on Friday said it has registered a case against 15 Paytm customers for allegedly cheating the digital wallet to the tune of Rs 6.15 lakh after receiving a complaint from its parent company.
"The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case on a complaint received from One97 Communications Ltd. with brand name Paytm on Thursday," agency spokesperson Devpreet Singh told IANS.
One97 is the parent company of Paytm which is backed by China's Alibaba Group.
The case was registered under various charges dealing with criminal conspiracy, forgery and under provisions of the Information Technology (IT) Act, the officer said.
According to her, the case has been registered against 15 private persons who are said to be Paytm customers.
"In its complaint, Paytm said that in some cases from March 2014 to April 2016, where refunds were made to the customers, delivery of orders were also successfully made on the same customers."
"Since delivery of orders was successful, refund should not happen. The generation of refunds has led to loss to Paytm to the tune of Rs 6.15 lakhs," the official added.
Singh declined to say if any case was registered against any official of Paytm or its parent company One97, only stating that the "investigation is under progress".
Asked if it was usual for the CBI to take up cases of private companies until they have been referred by the central government or on the directions of the Supreme Court or a high court, Singh said: "The CBI can register cases under IT Act in the territory of Delhi even against private individuals."
"The cyber cell of the CBI has been doing it since 2000," she said, adding, "And we have done cases for Snapdeal, Google, Microsoft and lot of other companies on their complaints and it is the job of the cyber cell."
Paytm, which has a user base of 150 million as on November 21, said that over five million users were added after the recent demonetisation of high-value currencies. It processes over seven million transactions a day, worth Rs 120 crore.