Land Scam In Odisha: EOW Investigation Reveals Some More Attempted Frauds, One In Gurugram

Bhubaneswar: Two fraudsters, earlier arrested for their alleged involvement in land frauds amounting to Rs 45 lakh, had also targeted a person in Gurugram, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Bhubaneswar, informed on Monday.

Further investigation revealed that accused Sabita Das of Jagatsinghpur and Aditya Sahoo of Athagarh had reportedly contacted one Harish Kumar of Gurugram and attempted to dupe him by offering a land, which was in the name of Rangalata Swain. Aditya had sent all land-related documents through WhatsApp to Harish Kumar and the latter transferred an advance of Rs.50,000 through PhonePay.

Harish did not go ahead with the deal, negotiated for Rs 3 crore, after his lawyer found the land documents to be fake.

The accused had prepared fake documents like patta papers, PAN/Aadhaar cards and residential certificate in the real owner’s name and even impersonated her while signing sale agreement.

Aditya, however, managed to deceive one Har Prasad Srichandan, working as havildar in SS Battalion, Commissionerate Police, Bhubaneswar. A sale agreement was executed between Aditya Sahoo on behalf of fake Rangalata Swain and Ipsita Srichandan, wife of Har Prasad Srichandan in 2022, in Bhubaneswar Court. The havildar had also paid Rs 2 lakh as advance to Aditya.

Notably, Swosti Ranjan Pani of Sailashree Vihar, whom they had also contacted to sell the land worth Rs 2 crore, at Bachhapur mouza in Baranga, had lodged a complaint with the EOW when they went incommunicado after taking an advance of Rs 25 lakh from her.

The accused had even opened a bank account in the name of Rangalata by submitting forged documents.

The agency suspects that this gang might be involved in several other such cases and further investigation is underway.