Naresh Gujral, son of former prime minister IK Gujral, was defrauded of ₹7.68 crores by scammers who impersonated him and tricked his company’s chief finance officer (CFO) into transferring the massive amount through at least four real-time gross settlement (RTGS) transactions last week.On June 12, CFO of Naresh's company allegedly received a WhatsApp message from a number with Naresh's profile picture. (Representative Image)After he filed a complaint, the case was handed to the Delhi Police’s special cyber crime investigation unit, Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO), which has claimed to have frozen ₹4.28 crore of the total amount so far, HT reported earlier.“On the complaint of Naresh Gujral, an FIR was registered on June 16. Immediate action was taken and an amount of ₹4.28 crore out of the total defrauded amount of ₹7.68 crore has been marked as lien/hold in various banks. Efforts are being made to apprehend the persons involved in the fraud,” deputy commissioner of police (IFSO) Vinit Kumar told HT.Also read: 'Desperate Trump used all kinds of leverage': Iran Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei on US-Iran dealThe scam reportedly took place between June 12 and 16 as the scammers posed as Naresh and hacked his WhatsApp account.Naresh holds a chartered account degree and a Rajya Sabha member from 2007 to 2022.How did scammers get access to Naresh Gujral's accounts?Naresh runs a company in south Delhi’s Okhla that is into manufacturing of textile, leather and other apparel products. He said in his complaint that the scammers tricked his company's chief financial officer (CFO) Shubham Singh, police said.On June 12, Singh allegedly received a WhatsApp message from a number with Naresh's profile picture. The impersonator reportedly told Singh that he wanted to deposit money in a bank account through real-time gross settlement (RTGS) transactions. After receiving the message, the employee deposited ₹7.68 crore in the account through four RTGS transactions assuming the messages were from Naresh and hence genuine, the officer said.Also read: Peace deal a way to avoid conflict for US, strengthens Iran’s hand in West AsiaInitial probe revealed that the scammers hacked into the WhatsApp account, impersonated Naresh Gujral, and tricked his employee into transferring the money, a police official told HT on the condition of anonymity.The money was routed into three-four accounts, though nearly 70% of it has been frozen, the official said.The transactions went unnoticedThe employee of Naresh's company reportedly felt that the money transfers were a part of routine transactions for the business. However, the bank flagged the transaction on account of huge sums of money involved. The scam came to light only on June 16 when Singh sensed something fishy about the transactions and informed Naresh's daughter about it.When she checked with her father about it, he denied giving any such instructions to the CFO. That is when the family realised that they had fallen prey to an online scam.