Chandigarh, April 27 -- A Sector 21 resident has been booked for allegedly defrauding a Beijing-based company of $130,000 (around Rs.1.2 crore) on the pretext of supplying surgical masks in 2020. The accused has not yet been arrested. Complainant Rajendra Aggarwal told police that the accused Mast Ram, a proprietor of a firm namely Vam Pharma, had defrauded his firm Beijing HJC Import and Exports Co Ltd, which is in the business of commodity trading, trading of pharma products, oil gas products and other consumer products for varied applications in China. Vam Pharma entered into an agreement with Beijing HJC Import and Exports Co. Ltd. on February 11, 2020, to supply five lakh three-ply surgical masks for $130,000. The buyer paid 50% of the amount in advance, with the remainder to be paid once the material is ready for dispatch to China. The complainant alleged that the accused failed to supply the masks despite assuring that they would be manufactured to international standards. The buyer had repeatedly tried to contact the seller for five years for refund, but didn't get any money back. On July 28 2022, the accused had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding to return the money. During this period, Rs.40 lakh from the advance taken from the Beijing firm was allegedly transferred to a third firm, PBL Pharmaceutical Pvt Ltd. The complainant also facilitated necessary approvals from the Reserve Bank of India and local banks to enable the remittance. Police said a complaint was initially registered on March 27, 2023, against the third party and later converted into an FIR to aid recovery of funds as per the MoU. The amount transferred to the third party was returned to Vam Pharma's account in July 2024, but the accused allegedly diverted the funds for personal use instead of refunding the buyer. In view of this, a cheating case was registered at the Sector 31 police station against the accused....