BERHAMPUR: Berhampur police on Friday arrested three persons for allegedly cheating a businessman of Rs 19 lakh by promising him high returns on antique items.
The accused, Siba Sankar Pattnaik (59) of Goulindi in Berhampur, Ajaya Kumar Mohanty (54) of Sidho village in Cuttack district and Batakrushna Pradhan (54) of Dansuasipada village in Cuttack had allegedly duped Promod Kumar Sahu by selling him fake antique items.
Berhampur SP, Saravana Vivek M said Pramod came in contact with one Bikash Rao who introduced himself as the tester-cum- facilitator of an unknown company that dealt with antique articles. Siba said his company bought antique articles at exorbitant prices ranging from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore.
Subsequently Pramod received a call from unidentified person who introduced himself as Biswal and tried to convince him that he has genuine antique article which he can sell for around Rs 19 lakh. The caller asked Pramod to come to a lodge in Berhampur where he along with Ajaya showed a piece of antique glass item which they said was checked, verified and certified by Bikash.
They encouraged Pramod to purchase the item by assuring their company would buy it from him for at least Rs 50 lakh. Later, the rest of the accused contacted Pramod and convinced him to pay Rs 19 lakh for the article. Pramod fell in the trap and met the accused at Panda Colony on November 27. Pramod showed him the bag he was carrying which had Rs 19 lakh in cash.
The accused, as part of their plan, had arranged a similar hand bag which contained bundles of paper. The next day, Pramod and the accused met again but this time at the former’s residence. As per Siba’s direction, Ajaya and Batakrushna went to the spot in an auto-rickshaw carrying the bag and asked Pramod to hand over his bag containing cash for counting.
While counting the cash, the accused deviated Pramod’s attention and replaced his bag with the ones they had brought along. They then kept the bag containing the paper bundles in a tin box at Pramod’s residence.
The accused then told Pramod they would bring the glass item from the lodge. In order to gain Pramod’s confidence, the accused asked him to send his driver with them.
Pramod’s driver took the accused to the lodge where he was asked to wait. But as they did not turn up for a long time, the driver informed Pramod who opened the tin box and found the bag containing paper bundles.