CUTTACK: Commissionerate Police on Wednesday began probe into the alleged unholy nexus of Inspector Bimal Kumar Barik of Cuttack Urban Police Department (UPD) with a fraudster Pravat Kumar Muduli.
Acting on the direction of Police Commissioner YB Khurania, Cuttack DCP Sanjeev Arora on Monday had served notice on five businessmen who had levelled allegations about the unholy alliance of the then IIC of Khandagiri police station Barik with accused Muduli, to appear before him and record their statements. Barik is currently the IIC of Markatnagar police station.
On the day, DCP Arora interrogated the five businessmen for marathon three hours and recorded their statements. The businessmen are Bhikari Charan Sahu, G Santosh Patra, Tikan Nayak, Prasant Nayak and Sanjeeb Pradhan.
“In response to the notice, we deposed before the DCP and are hopeful of getting justice,” said Pradhan, a trader of Gopalpur. He alleged that Muduli cheated him of money by bragging about his nexus with Barik.
Commissionerate Police was left red-faced after photographs of five Police Inspectors with Muduli and another accused Pramod Dora started circulating on social media recently. The duo is charged with duping over a million rupees from people posing as top executives of private companies. At least three cases are booked against them in Bhubaneswar.
The five duped traders had submitted a petition to Khurania alleging nexus of Barik with Muduli on September 15 following which the Police Commissioner had directed Arora to conduct a probe into the matter.