Bhubaneswar: Two Noida-based fraudsters were sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for ten years by a special court in Odisha for their involvement in fraud of over Rs Two crore.
An OPID court in Balasore also imposed a fine of Rs 3 lakh each on the convicts, who were earlier arrested by the Economic Offences (Wing) of Odisha Police. In case of non-payment of penalty, they would have to undergo further imprisonment of two years each.
The two, identified as Bijay Bharadwaj and Himanshu Bhandari, were held guilty under sections 419/420/465/467/468/471/ 170/120-B IPC, Sec.66 (C) & 66 (D) of IT Act, EOW said.
The EOW had arrested the duo based on the complaint of a businessman Pramod Kumar Rout of Joda in Keonjhar. He had alleged that the two had cheated him of Rs 2.35 crore on the pretext of paying him Rs 3 crores from the Union government, under ‘Pradhan Mantri Rahat Kosh Yojana’ against his Insurance Policy with Max New York Life, using the forged and manipulated documents.
Complainant Rout had one policy in Max New York Life Insurance Company. In 2019, he received a call from a fraudster impersonating himself as A. K Walia, the Fund Releasing Head, Ministry of Finance, Govt. of India. He informed Rout that his insurance policy has been selected for a reward under “Pradhan Mantri Rahat Kosh Yojona” of Govt. of India and an amount of Rs.3 Crores will be released to his account.
Subsequently, he received one letter on WhatsApp, which was issued purportedly by one HOD (Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority of India (IRDA) that the complainant is required to pay some dues for receiving fund of Rs 1,56,36,500 within the next four hours.
Along with the above letter, the informant also received some other communications/photographs on WhatsApp.
Rout received a series of calls from different persons using different mobile numbers, who identified themselves as employees in the office of A.K. Walia and induced/ persuaded the informant to transfer money through RTGS for the release of Rs 3 Crore.
Being induced, he transferred around Rs 2.35 crores in installments believing that after these procedures, he would get the Reward Money but no amount was received. He lodged a complaint with the EOW after realising that he had been cheated by the two.
