Bhubaneswar: The Cyber Crime unit of Odisha Crime Branch has arrested Biranchi Narayan Nath of Chhendipada in Angul district for alleged sexual and financial exploitation of several middle-aged women.
Biranchi had created a profile on a matrimonial website under the tagline “Second Marriage” and disguised himself as Railway employee/Income Tax Inspector or Officer in Customs and Central Excise etc. He used multiple names such as Manas Ratha, Pravakar Srivastav, Biranchi Narayan Nath etc.
He targeted middle-aged women who were unmarried, separated, widows or divorced. Initially, he approached the victims, sending marriage requests through the website. This was followed by phone conversations and later visits to their home.
He emotionally manipulated the women by promising lifelong support for their children and companionship. Many women were attracted by his fake profile and fell into the trap. He also promised to get them job after marriage. He underwent marriage rituals with many victims in temples and later cohabited with them at their home but never took any of them to his own place.
The conman secretly captured the intimate moments with them and also took nude photos and videos of many of victims through video calls. Later, he extorted money from them in shape of cash, gold and other valuables by threatening them to upload their private photos and videos on social media, if they did not adhere to his demand.
In the latest case registered by Cyber Crime unit, the victim is a woman from Cuttack who had lost her husband in a road accident in 2022 and was living with her two daughters. In order to have a safe and secure future for herself and her children, she decided to remarry. She had registered for second marriage in the matrimonial portal where the accused had many fake profiles in October 2023.
She received a request from one Pravakar Srivastav from Khamar, Talcher. He claimed to be a TTI in Railways at Visakhapatnam. He stated that he had lost his wife and mother and was living with his father, who he claimed was a manager at SBI in Rourkela.
On October 7, 2023, Pravakar visited the victim’s home and expressed his desire to proceed with the marriage proposal. While the victim’s family asked for some time to decide, he started calling her frequently and trapped her emotionally. During video calls, he clandestinely captured her nude videos.
Later, Pravakar took her on trips outside Odisha too. Using those videos, he forced her into physical relationship at multiple locations. After a deceitful marriage, he lived with her in her house for five months and continued to exploit her sexually and financially. He also physically assaulted her, whenever she resisted.
The victim endured this abuse out of fear of public humiliation due to the threat of her private videos being made public. He extracted around Rs 5 lakh and 32 grams of gold from her.
The victim eventually discovered that Pravakar was involved in similar relationship with other women, prompting her to report the matter to the Cyber Crime authorities. Based on her complaint, Cyber Crime police registered a case under the IT Act on September 12.
Following investigation, a team of officers from the Crime Branch arrested the accused. Several cases have been registered against him at various police stations including Baidyanathpur police station in Berhampur, two in Angul Town and Jarpada in Angul, Balasore Sadar, Chhend in Rourkela, Dhenkanal Town and Nayapalli and Balipatna in Bhubaneswar.
The conman has also been involved in similar cases outside states including Rajasthan, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi. Significant digital evidence including private photographs, videos of several women and fake IDs have been recovered from him and they are being analyzed to determine his involvement in other cases.