Bhubaneswar: The Special Task Force (STF) of Odisha on Sunday have busted an impersonation and extortion racket operating in Odisha and Jharkhand.
Two persons have been arrested on the charges of impersonating Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials.
The accused have been identified as Tarinisen Mohapatra (30) and Brahmashankar Mohapatra (27) resident of Dhenkanal district. Both the accused brothers are accused of impersonating Senior Officers of the Enforcement Directorate and demanding huge money from more than 300 Government officials.
Both the accused have been arrested based on the complaint filed by Sub-Collector-cum SDM, Chhatrapur regarding the demand for money by one person impersonating the Additional Director, Enforcement Directorate.
The duo brothers were maintaining luxurious life for which they borrowed huge money from Dhenkanal. When the borrower
pressurized them to return money, both of them left Dhenkanal and temporarily went to Ranchi , Jharkhand and stayed there in a rented house @ Rs.10, 000/- per month.
They worked in a NGO which operates in Ranchi, Jharkhand area, but due to some reason, the NGO was not functioning well at Ranchi for last one year. In order to maintain their luxurious life, both the the accused brothers hatched a plan to cheat the government officials by impersonating themselves as Additional Director of Enforcement Directorate, Bhubaneswar.
They especially chose ED because of the current prevailing news coverage about various ED raids. They watched and studied all ED related news articles so that they can impersonate and imitate well to scare/ extort the Govt officials.
The accused received the money from Government officials from their PhonePe and GooglePay wallets. So far, STF has traced the transaction/payment of more than Rs 16 lakh,” STF said in a release.
