Engineer, self-styled godman held for impersonating Odisha tourism officials and duping contractor of Rs 3 crore

BHUBANESWAR: An engineer and a self-styled godman were arrested by the economic offences wing (EOW) of the state crime branch on Sunday for allegedly passing off as senior officials of the Odisha Tourism Development Corporation (OTDC) and duping a contractor of Rs 3 crore.
The accused were identified by the sleuths as Chandan Akash Mohanty, the engineer, and Bijayananda Choudhury alias Swami Bijayanandaji Maharaj, the self-proclaimed baba. They allegedly took Rs 3 crore from Dhanurdhar Champatiray, a special-class contractor, and gave him fake work orders of renovating two OTDC-run hotels — one each at Barkul in Khurda district and Rambha in Ganjam district.
The EOW said Champatiray was desperately looking for some civil construction work in the middle of the pandemic in May last year when one of his relatives advised him to meet the self-proclaimed baba, who used to stay in the CDA area of Cuttack. The contractor met Bijayananda, who allegedly introduced himself as the chairman of OTDC and member of the India Tourism Development Corporation Limited, and assured the former of issuing him multi-crore work orders.
Bijayananda then got Champatiray introduced to Chandan, who identified himself as an assistant engineer with the OTDC. “We came to know that Chandan used to work as an assistant engineer with the OTDC on a contractual basis until May 31, 2019. When the contractor met Chandan, he was no longer with the OTDC,” an EOW official said.
The EOW expressed surprise that Champatiray, who was a special-class contractor, did not bother to verify the credentials of the two persons. “Since he is a contractor, he should have known the officials of the tourism department and the OTDC. But he was fooled by the two fraudsters and transferred nearly Rs 3 crore to the bank accounts of the duo to bag the contracts,” the official said.
The probe agency said the accused released 23 fake work orders from August to November 2020 for the repair and renovation of Pantha Nivas at Barkul and Rambha. These orders carried a fake OTDC logo and bore the forged signature of the OTDC’s executive engineer.
Realising that he has been duped, Champatiray recently drew the attention of the OTDC to the fraud and sought action against the duo. Following this, the OTDC lodged a complaint with the EOW a few days ago.