Bhubaneswar: The Special Task Force (STF) of Odisha Police on Sunday arrested the mastermind of a racket involved in several cases of cheating people by impersonating RTI Activists or senior government officials.
The arrested mastermind of the racket is identified as Kanhu Charan Pradhan, a resident of Khurda Tangi, who has been living in Bhubaneswar. The accused is a graduate and used to run a liquor shop earlier, the STF said.
Earlier, one arrested, Kishore Mishra, and some others were working in close association and under the leadership of Pradhan. This refers to STF case no 15/2023. This case was initially registered at Koraput Town PS vide case no- 122/2023, 419/420/465/468/470/471/34 IPC, Dated 25.04.2023. Later the investigation was taken over by STF.
According to the STF, several cases have been registered against Kanhu in the past. He has been involved in at least four more cases. Many people had saved his number as Secretary or Additional Secretary etc. Expensive mobile phones, forged/fake Govt notifications/ orders and other incriminating documents have been seized from him.
Pradhan had fled to Thailand and had recently returned to Odisha. It is also suspected that this group had got published some fake job advertisements in some newspapers. This group used to cheat or extort money from people claiming to be RTI activists and also fool people that they have close proximity with senior officers and can get them crusher licenses, liquor licenses, transfer/posting etc, the STF said.
“This group is indulging in cheating and impersonation at various places in Odisha. It was also noticed that this group uses some mule bank accounts including some accounts of dead persons. They trick people by saving their numbers as some senior officers and when people verify it on ‘True-caller” they start trusting them as genuine. Further investigation is on,” the STF added.
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