Snapdeal files police case against local logistics firm

NEW DELHI Indian online retailer Snapdeal has filed a police complaint against a local logistics company, in which it owns a stake, of defrauding it of 3.57 billion rupees ($ 55.37 million), a police report showed.

The company, which is backed by Japan’s Softbank, accused Quickdel of misappropriation, cheating and misleading it, in the police first information report filed in New Delhi on Friday.

Reuters has a copy of the police report.

Vineet Rai, the administrative officer at the Gurgaon headquarters of Quickdel, said the company could not immediately comment.

A spokeswoman for Snapdeal was not reachable by phone.

Snapdeal said it had bought a 49.99 percent stake in Quickdel in 2014 and early 2015, after the logistics company said it would help the two to grow the business. Snapdeal said in the police complaint that it realised later the logistics firm had misrepresented facts.

Snapdeal has been at the center of takeover speculation, with its largest backer Softbank seen as keen to sell the company to its larger rival, Tiger Global-backed Flipkart.

In May, television channel ET Now reported that the founders of Snapdeal and one of its early investors, Nexus, have reached an agreement with SoftBank Group that would allow the Japanese firm to move ahead with its plan to sell Snapdeal to Flipkart.

Sources told Reuters last month that SoftBank was working to engineer a sale of Snapdeal to Flipkart, as it seeks to play consolidator and take a more active role at a trio of leading start-ups in India.