Berhampur: Three fraudsters have been arrested by Berhampur Police for allegedly duping a businessman of Rs 19 lakh in the pretext of providing him genuine antique articles.
The businessman has been identified as Pramod Kuamr Sahu (58) of Brahmanagar area of Berhampur.
The accused persons are Siba Sankar Pattnaik(59) of Goulindi, Santinagar area of Berhampur; Ajaya Kumar Mohanty(54) of Sidho village under Salepur PS, Cuttack district and Batakrushna Pradhan(54) of Dansuasipada village under Kanmdarpur, UPD PS, Cuttack district.
Pramod Kuamr Sahu came in contact with one Bikash Rao @ Siba Sankar Pattnaik who introduced himself as tester-cum- facilitator of a unknown company dealing with various antique articles. Siba Sankar said his company bought antique articles at very high price giving Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore for genuine antique articles. Subsequently Sahu received call from unknown person who introduced himself as Biswal and tried to convince him that he has one genuine antique article which he can sell for around Rs 19 lakh. To showcase his item he called the complainant to a lodge in Berhampur where Biswal came to meet with Sahu. Biswal was accompanied by Ajaya Kumar Mohanty on November 19-20 and they both displayed a piece of antique glass item which was “checked and verified” and certified by Bikash and encouraged the complainant to purchase same. He promised that his authorized company who deal the business legally would buy this antique for atleast Rs 50 lakhs.
Further on subsequent dates that Ajaya Kumar Mohanty with one Mantu alias Batakrushna Pradhan came and met the complainant repeatedly and convinced him to arrange Rs19 lakhs immediately to purchase the glass item.
The complainant got trapped with the words of the accused persons imagining he can buy this antique for Rs 19 lakhand sell it for Rs 50 lakh. But both the parties knew each other and the complainant didn’t realise that he was trapped and cheated by both sides.
Sahu agreed to arrange Rs 19 Lakh and he came to meet the accused persons with the cash of Rs.19 Lakh (kept in a green bag) at Panda Colony on November 27 morning and showed the cash to the accused persons. After seeing the cash the accused persons conspired to execute their plan.
Accordingly they arranged a similar type of hand bag was arranged by accused with paper bundles. Next morning i.e. on 28.11.2024 at 09:30 AM they all meet again at the same destination to execute their plan. As per the direction of Siba Sankar Pattnaik , Ajaya Kumar Mohanty and Batakrushna Pradhan went to the spot in an auto with an air bag and asked complainant to give the money bag for counting.
While counting cunningly the accused persons exchanged the money bag with a similar hand bag having paper bundles which looked similar to cash bundles. They locked the bag in presence of the complainant and put the duplicate money bag in a tin trunk kept in the complainant house. Then both told the Sahu that as per demand the cash is complete and your cash bag is safe here inside the trunk but they took the key of the trunk with them.
Then they proceed to the lodge to “bring the antique glass” item for the complt. by saying that we will come back with your item within 15 to 20 minutes and also requested his driver to go with him to gain his confidence. In good faith the driver of the complt. took both the accused persons in his motor cycle to new bus stand and dropped them and they both proceed towards the lodge saying the driver to wait for few minutes for their arrival. The driver waited their so long, but they did not return. So he suspected something fishy and intimated Sahu that the accused persons might have cheated him and told him to check the box. Immediately the complainant broke open the trunk he checked the money bag he found the bag is full of paper bundles.
He reported the fact at the police station. Immediately BNpur police team proceed in various directions assisted by Ganjam chatrapur police team. In a very co-ordinated effort IIC Golanthara Bibekananda Swain, IIC Gopalpur Prashant Mallick , IIC Bnpur Suchitra Pradhan, SI Kailash Pandey, ASI Giri Jena , ASI Sunasagad , ASI K Mirdha accused persons and apprehended Nayak @ Ajaya Kumar Mohanty and Bikash Rao @ Siba Sankar Pattnaik at Chatrapur by scientific investigation and confirmed by their attires as described by the complainant. Immediately from the possession of Ajaya Kumar Mohanty cash of Rs. Rs.1,81,950 along with 3 mobile phones were brought to PS for further interrogation.
During course of interrogation the master mind Siba Sankar Pattnaik confessed his guilt and disclosed that after commission of crime they distributed the amount themselves i.e. cash of Rs.2,50,000 Batakrushna Pradhan , cash of Rs. Rs..200000 Ajaya Kumar Mohanty and kept the rest Rs.14,50,000 with him.
Subsequently cash Rs. 14,50,000 was seized from the house of accused Siba Sankar Pattnaik and cash Rs. 2,50,000 from the possession of accused Batakrushna Pradhan. The accused persons were arrested and forwarded, informed Berhampur SP Dr. Saravana Vivek M through a press note.
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