Bhubaneswar: The Pahala police in Bhubaneswar have arrested a man accused of duping a woman and her family of Rs 22.70 lakh through an elaborate impersonation scheme involving fake identities and false promises of marriage.
The accused, identified as Ranjib Kumar Pradhan, allegedly created a deceptive profile on a matrimonial website in 2021, presenting himself as Dr Prakash Pradhan, a medical professional. He further claimed that his younger brother, Tushar Pradhan, held the position of Deputy Manager at the State Bank of India (SBI) in Rayagada. Using these fabricated identities, he established contact with the complainant and built trust by assuring a marriage alliance with the so-called brother.
According to police sources, Pradhan convinced the woman’s father to transfer money under the guise of investments in various schemes after gaining the family’s confidence. These included purported Covid-19 senior citizen policies, departmental training programmes, and even petrol pump dealership auctions.
Between June and December in 2021, the family transferred a total of Rs 22.70 lakh. Thereafter, Pradhan became unresponsive, ignoring calls and messages, which raised suspicions of foul play.
The victim then approached Pahala police station and filed a formal complaint.
A thorough investigation by the police uncovered the fraud. Verifications with SBI Rayagada branch and the Community Health Centre (CHC) in Manamunda confirmed that no individuals named Tushar Pradhan or Dr Prakash Pradhan were employed there. Technical scrutiny of call detail records (CDRs) and mobile numbers revealed that two separate numbers used in the communications were operated from the same handset and linked to a single person — Ranjib Kumar Pradhan himself. Further financial probes showed that Pradhan had used his father’s bank account to receive the cheated amount and employed multiple identities to execute the deception.
During interrogation, he reportedly confessed to the offence.
Based on the gathered evidence, including technical analysis and bank verifications, police subsequently arrested Pradhan in connection with the cheating case. While further investigation is underway, the incident serves as a caution amid rising reports of frauds originating from matrimonial websites in Odisha.
