BHUBANESWAR: The Economic Offences Wing of the Crime Branch arrested a clerk of the Directorate of Technical Education Training (DTET) Suryamani Tripathy for impersonating an IAS official and cheating New Delhi based Rashtriya Stainless Steel to the tune of over Rs 1.17 crore after promising to issue various projects of the Works Department to the firm.
Suryamani's associate Amit Kumar was also apprehended for impersonating an engineer of the Works Department.
In 2017, the proprietor of Rashtriya Stainless Rikab Chand Munot met Rajesh Gahlot through one of his friends. Rajesh pretended to be a Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) officer and claimed many IAS officials in Odisha were his friends.
Rashtriya Stainless has its branch office at Kalinga Nagar in Bhubaneswar. The branch office's proprietor is Rikab's son Akshay Munot.
Rajesh introduced Rikab and his son Akshay to Suryamani at Odisha Niwas in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi. Suryamani claimed that he was posted as an Additional Secretary in the Works Department.
Suryamani and Rajesh assured the complainant that high-value work orders in Odisha would be issued in favour of Rashtriya Stainless Steel.
In 2018, Suryamani called Rikab and his son Akshay to Bhubaneswar to execute an agreement with the Works Department. Suryamani introduced his associate Amit, who is unemployed, to them as an engineer of the Works Department when the duo went to meet the accused at the office of the engineer-in-chief (civil), Nirman Soudha.
The accused took Rikab and Akshay to a court in the capital and produced fake agreement letters signed by the assistant engineer in the office of EIC (civil). Akshay signed on the forged papers on behalf of Rashtriya Stainless and the documents were notarized.
In March 2018, Suryamani and Amit asked the victims to deposit Rs 25 lakh in the state government's Directorate of Treasuries to get Rashtriya Stainless registered in the Works Department for issuance of various work orders.
Rikab and his son Akshay paid the cash to a woman who impersonated an official of the Directorate of Treasuries and the accused provided them a fake receipt. The father-son duo had met the accused near the Directorate of Treasuries.
Suryamani then provided two fake work orders to Rashtriya Stainless issued by assistant engineer in the office of EIC (civil) having contract value of Rs 3 crore and Rs 4 crore on March 15, 2018.
The accused again issued two fake work orders on August 21, 2018 having contract value of Rs 32.52 crore and Rs 47.52 crore for various works in the state.
Suryamani also handed over a fake letter signed by the accounts officer in the office of EIC (civil) to transfer Rs 1.52 crore and Rs 3.16 crore to the account of Rashtriya Stainless towards 20 per cent advance for the work order issued in favour of the firm.
The accused persons continued to collect money from the victims on the pretext of expediting work orders in favour of Rashtriya Stainless.
However, Rikab filed an RTI application when Rashtriya Stainless did not receive any work from the state government and he came to know that all the documents provided to him and his son were fake.
The victims then lodged a complaint in the EOW and a case was registered in this connection on Thursday. Suryamani was nabbed from Cuttack and Amit from Bhubaneswar on Friday.
"Fake work orders, agreements and treasury receipts have been seized. Suryamani used to meet the victims at Odisha Niwas in New Delhi to gain their confidence. He has also saved the mobile numbers of senior IAS, IPS, OAS officers and judges to create a good impression before the complainant," EOW DIG Jai Narayan Pankaj told TNIE.
Investigation of the case is on to identify and nab the other accused persons, he added.