Eight held by Odisha cops for trying to dupe businessmen of 1 crore

BHUBANESWAR: Airport police here on Wednesday arrested eight persons, including three constables, for allegedly attempting to cheat a businessmen of Rs one crore by luring him to invest in a foreign company, which promises hefty returns. Police seized Rs 99.50 lakh cash from the accused.
Those arrested were identified as Prasanta Kumar Panda (27), Abhishek Sethy (32), Raj Rayabahadur (45), Prashant Padhy (45), Maheswar Sahoo (52), Dillip Kumar Mallick (37), Sandipta Kumar Prusty (26) and Prafulla Kumar Bhuyan (38). Mallick, Prusty and Bhuyan worked as constables in Puri, Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, respectively.
Police sources said some of the accused were familiar with the Mayurbhanj-based businessman, Kamal Saha. They had recently borrowed Rs 12 lakh from Saha by promising him fat returns. They returned Rs 15 lakh to Saha within a week.
Then the accused planned a bigger game to cheat Saha. They asked Saha for Rs one crore cash and promised him Rs 1.5 crore in return within a few days. They had told him that the money will be invested in a foreign company. Without verifying their credentials, Saha brought Rs one crore to a hotel where the accused were present, deputy commissioner of police Uma Shankar Dash said.
According to their plan, they secretly informed police about an IPL betting racket that was being operated by Saha in the hotel. Saha did not know that Mallick, Prusty and Bhuyan were constables. Just when the police raided, the accused, including the constables misappropriated around Rs 25 lakh and gave Rs 75 lakh cash to the police, Dash said. The intention of the accused was to cheat Saha. They wanted to make Saha feel that the raid was real. The accused hid some cash bundles (Rs 25 lakh) during the raid. They thought Saha would never lodge a police complaint about his black money, Dash said.
During investigation, police came to know Saha was not part of any betting racket. “We found Saha was the victim. He told us that he had brought Rs one crore. During verification, we came to know about the conspiracy hatched by the accused with the help of the constables. We recovered Rs 24.50 lakh from the accused. In total, Rs 99.50 lakh has been recovered,” Dash said.
Police suspect the involvement of more persons in the gang of fraudsters. It plans to take them on remand for interrogation.