Cuttack: Police on Tuesday arrested a man for allegedly duping people of around Rs 5 crore with dubious schemes for mobile and TV recharge in Cuttack district.
The accused was identified as Bipra Prasad Swain, a resident of Dibati in Cuttack Sadar police station area.
Police said Swain had opened a one-line company named Sangvi Enterpriser Ltd at Dibati. He then engaged some agents to collect money from people for recharging of their SIM cards and TV channel as per the company’s plans.
The plans included an annual offer of Rs 999 for mobile recharge, a subscription of Rs 1,299 for mobile recharge for one-and-half-years and an annual offer of Rs 1,499 for TV channel recharge,
Police started an investigation following a complaint by one Gyan Ranjan Satpathy at Madhupatana police station on February 5.
The complainant alleged that Swain had swindled people to the tune of Rs 5 crore by promising them to recharge their mobiles and TV channels for a year. Lured by the plans, customers deposited the money and got services for five to six months. However, the benefits stopped after that.
In the course of investigation, police raided the office of the accused and arrested him. They also seized the entire computer system installed in Swain’s office that was used for cheating people.
The items seized include seven hard disks, sic CPUs, seven VDUs, six keyboards, 3 mouse, and six UPS.
Police said they were hunting for the other accused in the case.
