Odisha EOW arrests two fraudsters from Mumbai

Bhubaneswar: The economic offence wing (EOW) of Odisha police has arrested two fraudsters from Mumbai for cheating over Rs 2 crore from a businessman of Odisha.

The accused persons are identified as Rakesh Kumar Girija Shankar Pandey and Sarman Singh Tomar. Both the accused were arrested on March 26 and have been brought to Odisha on transit remand, police said on Tuesday.

The arrest was made against a case registered on the basis of a complaint filed by one Ashok Kumar Singh. As per the allegation, Rakesh, Sarman and seven others have cheated more than Rs 2.02 crore on the pretext of financing Rs 100 crore to Ashok Kumar Singh for his business.

During investigation, the EOW found that Sarman Singh Tomar runs an illegal Hawala business in Mumbai and Rakesh Pandey, a native of Uttar Pradesh, is a veteran fraudster/criminal/extortionist having numerous criminal cases against him in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.

The police seized debit cards, credit cards and cheques of different banks, mobile phones, one pistol with eight rounds of live ammunition and cash of Rs 50,000 from the possession of Rakesh Pandey.

The EOW further informed that Rakesh Pandey is involved in at least 15 crimes like fraud, dacoity, robbery, swindling, forgery and attempt to murder registered at different police stations of Mumbai, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. His involvement in other such cases is under verification, the officials said.

The investigation of the case is continuing. Efforts are on to identify and arrest the remaining accused persons of the gang and to unveil their involvement in hawala transactions, they added.

–IANS