Bhubaneswar: The special task force (STF) of Odisha Crime Branch has arrested one more accused in connection with an thuggery/cheating/impersonation case registered in Koraput district.
The arrested has been identified as Laxman Madhi of Malkanagiri.
In August, the STF had arrested mastermind Kanhu Charan Pradhan and his aide Kishore Mishra after allegedly cheating several people by promising them government jobs. This group allegedly cheated/extorted people claiming to be RTI activists and assured victims of government jobs and licences to run mines, stone crusher units and liquor shops in the state by flaunting contacts with senior government officers and ministers.
“It was also noticed that this group uses some mule bank accounts including some accounts of dead persons. They trick people by saving their numbers as some senior officers and when people verify it on ‘True-caller”, they start trusting them as genuine. In this way they have cheated the people. So far, investigation has revealed that more than Rs 40 crore transactions were made in the accounts of Pradhan and his associates,” an STF release said.
Notably, Pradhan had fled to Thailand and was caught by immigration officials at an international airport on the look-out circular (LOC) issued against him. However, the STF could not arrest him as he had already obtained interim bail from the Orissa High Court in connection with the Koraput case. The bail order, however, said police could still arrest him if he was involved in other crimes. It was then found that he was booked by Nayagarh police in four other cases, including a murder and cheating case, in the past.
Koraput town police station had registered a case of cheating and impersonation against Pradhan and Mishra in April and STF took over the investigation in July.
It is also being suspected that Pradhan-led gang was involved in some fake job rackets. “They published fake government job advertisements in newspapers. We have seized some forged government notifications, orders and other incriminating documents from him,” STF’s inspector general J N Pankaj had earlier told the media.
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