Reseller, Dhiren Kumar Malik of DK Peripherals has sprung the 'vanishing trick' on Nehru Place. Though the amount involved is small -- roughly totaling to Rs 20 lakh -- the case comes close on the heels of Gravis Computer case, in which Sanjay Gupta of Gravis disappeared with Rs 2 crore booty. 

However, unlike Sanjay who was a decade old player, Dhiren started his IT reseller business barely one-and-a-half month back. He used to operate from M-3, Mezzanine Floor of Raja House in Nehru Place. 

According to Sandesh Agarwal of Contec Systems and Satish Bansal of PV Computers, Dhiren was introduced to them by Rakesh Kumar, a sales executive at DK Peripherals. The twenty-six years old Rakesh was in the IT channel business from the last four years, in the capacity of marketing executive. On his verbal commitment, PV Computers supplied goods to Dhiren against cash payment, for the first time on June 7. Dhiren engaged in about nine deals with Rakesh and all payments till June 18 were cleared. But he missed the last two payments. 

Satish informed that he had sent his sales boy to Dhiren's office on Friday, June 24 and Saturday, June 25 to collect cheques for the payments amounting to Rs 1,43,675 and Rs 10,2,675, but Dhiren said, “I have exhausted my cheque book. I will issue the cheques on Monday.” He even assured Satish that he would send the cash, when the latter called him on the phone. However, on the afternoon of June 29, the news of Dhiren's disappearance was confirmed. 

List of his victims include Contec Systems, The Computer Park, PV Computers, Balaji Peripherals, Lattice Computers, Pacetech, Elcom Trading and Allied Infosys among others. They were all supplying materials to DK Peripherals from the last one month. 

Interestingly, Hem Raj Agarawal of Balaji Peripherals recounted that he had a nagging feeling - that Dhiren would cheat him. Raj started supplying goods to him from May 20 on cash payments. He had also received current dated cheques from him that were cleared. However, his nagging feeling took over and he stopped supplying goods to him mid-June - that was the time when Dhiren started purchasing goods in larger volumes. 

Raj later resumed dealings with him when the latter assured him of no hanky panky and timely payments. But in spite of the assurance, on June 28, his last two cheques of Rs 1,90,590 and Rs 550 bounced due to insufficient funds, when presented at the IDBI Bank, IFCI-Extension Counter, IFCI Tower, 61 Nehru Place. Another cheque of Rs 27,000 is still lying with Raj. 

Satish is now trying to track Dhiren. According to him, when Rakesh, the marketing person with DK Peripherals was confronted, he denied any knowledge of Malik's whereabouts. Rakesh lives at 79\7 Gali Number 3, Amritpuri, Gadi, East of Kailash, with his sister and brother-in-law and is not available on phone. His mobile (9818394095) is switched off. 

It is said that Dhiren hailed from Punjab. “Four months ago, he was sacked from Supreme Invertors on grounds of 'bad conduct', where he worked as marketing executive for about four months,” informed Vivek Kaushik, owner of Supreme Invertors. 

Satish also informed that Dhiren lived at A1-61 Prashant Vihar, Sector 14, Rohini. When The DQ Week went to this address, Hemant Goel, who lives at this address, informed that Dhiren had sold this house about 10 years back. He bought this property in 1997 from a second party. Hemant said he had never heard of Dhiren until channel partners started visiting his place inquiring about him. 

Satish and Sandesh Agarwal lamented that since the amount involved in this case is too small for the big players, they are not actively taking up the case. Ajaya Kumar of The Computer Park informed that he lost Rs 40,000 and Elcom Trading has lost Rs 20,000. Some victims are consulting a lawyer and are keen that PCAIT take up their cause. 

DQC NEWS BUREAU 
New Delhi

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