BHUBANESWAR: The Special Task Force (STF) of Crime Branch on Sunday arrested the kingpin of a gang that swindled money from people posing as RTI activists/government officials. The accused Kanhu Charan Pradhan is a native of Tangi in Khurda but has been staying in the capital city since the last several years. He had fled to Thailand and returned to Odisha recently.
Impersonating as secretary/additional secretary of various departments of the state government like General Administration, Home, Excise and others, Pradhan swindled money from people on various occasions. Though Koraput police had earlier registered a case in this connection, the investigation was later taken over by the STF. At least four cases were registered against Pradhan in the past for his involvement in various offences.
The STF further seized expensive mobile phones, forged/fake government notifications and orders along with other incriminating documents from him. The agency has received information of Pradhan and his associates’ involvement in publishing fake job advertisements in a few vernacular dailies and verification is underway.
“The group led by Pradhan used to cheat and extort money from people in various parts of the state by claiming to be RTI activists and government officials. In exchange for money, the accused used to con the victims on the promise of providing them licenses for different businesses like liquor shops, crusher units and facilitating transfers,” said Jai Narayan Pankaj, IG EOW.
They used to transfer the money in mule bank accounts including a few of those people who are not alive. They were saving each others’ mobile phone numbers along with their names and designation of senior officials so that the victims are able to notice the details on Truecaller and consider them as genuine, Pankaj added.