Cuttack: Cuttack Police arrested a transgender for allegedly duping the manager of a private hospital in Cuttack City for impersonating the state Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Empowerment and duping a hospital staff of Rs 46,500.
Police said that the accused has been identified as Soumya Ranjan Pradhan alias Lucky alias Sulagna, a resident of Kishore Nagar in Angul district of Odisha.
The Manager of the hospital received a telephonic call from an unknown mobile number who posed himself as the PA to Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain citing an urgent matter and said the Minister wished to speak to her personally. After that the fraudster spoke to her in the disguised voice of the Minister and told her that a pious and religious lady was organising puja and havan for which she required ghee weighing around 31 kg.
The imposter disguised as Swain asked her to contribute the ghee which amounted to Rs 46,000 to the havan as a goodwill gesture. However, after paying the money through a UPI app, she discovered that there was no call from the actual Minister or his PA and she has been duped. When she called back to the said number, it was found switched off.
Later, the police nabbed the accused transgender. During interrogation, the accused admitted to committing the crime and revealed that they had duped several people, including senior officials and medicos, impersonating different personalities. He also confessed that he had learned the tricks of cyber fraud while he was staying in New Delhi.
the police found that the accused had been to Delhi two years ago where he learned how to commit cyber crime. After returning to Odisha he had been to the residence of Ranendra Pratap Swain with his Kinnar Group seeking donation where she learnt the style of talking of the Minister.As per the police, more than 100 people have been duped by the accused till now who siphoned off more than Rs 10 lakh from them.The accused has been forwarded to the court after arrest.
