CUTTACK: A transgender was arrested for allegedly duping the manager of a private hospital by posing as the Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Empowerment. The accused, Soumya Ranjan Pradhan alias Lucky alias Sulagna, is a resident of Kishore Nagar at Angul.
DCP Pinak Mishra said the owner of the hospital had filed a complaint alleging that on September 7 the hospital’s manager received a call on the landline number from a man who posed himself as the personal assistant of the minister. The caller said the matter was urgent and the minister wished to speak to her personally.
Sensing urgency, she called back from her personal mobile phone. The fraudster then identified himself as the minister and said a woman seer Maa Sibani Durga wanted to talk with hospital owner for some personal work. He then handed over the phone to a woman who told the manager that she was organising a ‘hawan’ for which she needed 31 kg ghee and asked her to pay Rs 46,000 for the same as a goodwill gesture. As the hospital manager was busy in OPD document work during the call, she quickly transferred Rs 46,500 from her account to the UPI ID provided by the woman, without verifying the authenticity of the call.
Later, police nabbed the accused transgender. During interrogation, he admitted to have committed the crime. The accused informed that he learnt to commit cyber crimes in New Delhi and during a meeting with the minister with his Kinnar group for some donation two years back, he had picked up the former’s style of talking.