Bhubaneswar: The Commissionerate police have arrested a habitual cyber fraudster and recovered Rs 1 lakh cash, two smartphones and passbooks of various banks from him.
The arrested accused has been identified as Sagar alias Sidharth Panigrahi (25) of Rath Gada Sahi within Nayagarh police station limits. Accused Sagar holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, the police said.
Addressing a presser here today, Bhubaneswar DCP Prateek Singh said that the accused is involved in a series of cyber frauds and was earlier arrested by Cyber police.
After the accused gained notoriety in cyber fraud, the Cyber Police of Bhubaneswar successfully apprehended the accused Sidharth Panigrahi of Nayagarh.
Sing further informed that the accused was mostly involved in duping buyers and sellers through OLX. He was identified in coordination with OLX and arrested.
Rs 1 lakh cash, two smartphones and passbooks of various banks were seized from him, while Rs 1 lakh has been blocked on different accounts of the accused, the police official added.
Recently, a complaint was registered with CC & EO PS case No-65, dtd-02.08.2023, U/S-419/420 IPC r.w. Sec 66 (C)/66 (D) IT Act.
According to the plaint, the complainant, owner of “SAI ELECTRO WORLD”, a store of Electric appliances, got a telephonic call from the accused who impersonated him to be an employee of HDFC Bank & he pursued the complainant to buy Panasonic 5 star Air Conditioners with GST bill and finally, 10 ACS were finalized at Rs 2 lakhs.
According to the deal, the complainant paid Rs 1 lakh on RTGS from his account to the SBI Account of one Pradeep Kumar Nayak and another Rs 1lakh on PhonePe to the Axis Bank Account of one Sanjay Kumar Paltasingh.
After the money was deposited in the said account, the fraudster switched off the mobile and went dark. Following this, the complainant reported the matter to the cyber police for necessary action.
As per police records, the accused Sidharth Panigrahi was arrested a year ago by cyber police on 25.07.2022 in connection with CCEO PS case no. 28 dtd 22.07.2022 U/S-419/420 IPC r.w. Sec 66 (C)/66 (D) IT Act in connection with the sale of mobile phones through OLX.
He is also involved in Khandagiri, Nayapalli, & Chandrasekharpur PS cases and other complaints reported at CCEO PS are under verification & further investigation is going on, the police further informed.
