SAMBALPUR: Sambalpur police on Tuesday arrested five persons including an employee of Sambalpur Development Authority (SDA) for allegedly cheating many applicants by issuing them forged approval letters for building plans.
While the main accused who works as a dealing assistant at the SDA was identified as Bulu alias Laxmi Narayan Samal (32), the other accused are Ajaya Behera (47) of Ainthapali, Bikash Jagat (36) of Badmal, Dambrudhara Tripathy (40) of Kuluthkani and Sudhansu Kishor Pati (59) of Jharuapada, all under different police limits under Sambalpur district.
The fraud came to the fore after one Harikesh Bahadur Singh of Gopalpali and another Sabita Bagar of Ainthapali applied for a housing loan in the State Bank of India, Bareipali branch using the building plan approval issued by the main accused. During verification, the SDA building plan approvals were found to be forged.
Subsequently, the matter was reported to the SDA and later the city planner of SDA whose forged signature and seal were used in the approvals, filed a complaint in this connection. Sambalpur SP Mukesh Kumar Bhamoo said the accused lured people to pay money by assuring them of getting their building plans approved. “They then cheated the applicants by making forged approval letters for the building plans and deriving financial benefits from them,” he added.
Police said, though there is a series of processes for issuing an approval letter for building plans, the accused issued forged building plan approval to applicants without following the normal official procedure.
A victim Harikesh Bahadur Singh said he was approached by accused Bikash Jagat when he had gone to apply for plan approval. Jagat assured him of getting approval without any hassles and took a total of Rs 1,03,600 for the purpose. Later an approval letter was issued to him on July 27 but it turned out to be fake. As per information, the accused had been issuing forged building plan approvals since 2021 and demanded around Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh for the same from each, which many applicants agreed to pay.
Following preliminary investigations, police identified 54 persons who have been duped with forged approval letters by the accused. Later during verification, over Rs 3.31 crore were found in the accused’s bank accounts. A case under sections 420, 468 and 471 of the IPC was registered against them and further investigation is underway to ascertain the involvement of other persons in the fraud.