Ahmedabad: An e-commerce company based in Delhi and its directors allegedly cheated 10 people, including a man from Ahmedabad, of Rs 68.40 lakh by promising warehouse delivery franchises.

The victims were initially paid some money as warehouse rent and commission, but later the payments stopped.According to a police complaint filed by Ilen Patel from the Sola area, he first saw an advertisement on social media offering delivery franchise opportunities and applied for it. He received a call from a woman who asked him to visit the company's Prahladnagar office. There, two individuals — Devendra Goswami and Arthav — told him to pay Rs 11,000 as a token amount for an Ahmedabad district warehouse franchise, which Patel paid through UPI.He was later contacted by a man, Sanjay Sharma, who claimed to be the head of the company. Sharma suggested Patel take a zonal warehouse franchise instead and asked for Rs 12.5 lakh. Patel and his father paid the amount after discussion. They were promised Rs 25,000 monthly rent and a 1% commission.Following this, Patel rented a warehouse near Science City based on the company's instructions. He received Rs 1.88 lakh from the company in the first four months.

After that, the company stopped making payments.Patel visited the company's Ahmedabad office but did not get a proper response. He later came in contact with others who had similar experiences. All of them invested money for the delivery franchise and were not repaid the money.The economic offence wing (EOW) of the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) registered a case of cheating and criminal conspiracy under the BNS Act and began an investigation.