Fake Army officer held in Bhubaneswar, SUV with fabricated number seized

BHUBANESWAR: A person who allegedly faked to be an Army officer to ensure unhindered movement during lockdown/shutdown period was arrested by the city police on Saturday.

Police said the fraudster Ratikant Satpathy of Daruthenga had pasted 'Army' stickers both on the front and rear windscreens of the SUV he was driving with a fabricated registration number.

"Satpathy is an employee of a private company and not an Army officer. He is not even the owner of the SUV that belongs to a man, who is absconding after a cheating case was registered," said a police official.

Satpathy was nabbed after one Dhananjay Hota of Nayapalli spotted him driving the vehicle in the city bearing the registration number of his four-wheeler.

Hota owns a white Mahindra XUV500 having registration number -- OD 02 Y 0023 which Satpathy fraudulently used for the SUV.

After noticing Satpathy driving a black SUV of the same make and registration number, Hota flashed his car's headlights and honked indicating Satpathy to stop.

When he stopped near Jaydev Vihar traffic signal, Hota clicked some photographs of the vehicle.

He then managed to intercept the accused near Pal Heights and confronted him for using the fake registration number.

"Satpathy said he is a Captain in the Army and wanted to amicably sort out the matter. I informed the police officials and they whisked him away to Nayapalli police station. Earlier, I had received three challans of Rs 1,000, Rs 2,000, and Rs 2,500 for various traffic violations, which seem to be committed by the fraudster as he was using my vehicle registration number," said Hota.

Preliminary investigation revealed that the actual owner of the SUV which was seized from Satpathy has reportedly not cleared the vehicle loan.

"He was driving the same vehicle with fake registration number and Army stickers to hoodwink the cops during the lockdown and also to avoid the attention of the finance company's officials," said an officer of Nayapalli police station.

Satpathy has been arrested and a cap with Army printed on it has been seized from his possession. Further investigation is on.