Rs 19 Lakh Replaced With Paper Bundles: How Odisha Businessman Was Duped Over ‘Antique Item’

The arrested have been identified as Siba Sankar Patnaik (59) of Goulindi Santi Nagar in Berhampur, Ajaya Kumar Mohanty (54) of Sidho village and Batakrushna Pradhan (54) of Dansuasipada village, both in Cuttack district.

Police recovered Rs 14.5 lakh from Siba, Rs 1.81 lakh from Ajaya and Rs 2.5 lakh from Batakrushna. A hand bag containing some plain paper bundles, a trunk and six mobile phones have also been seized.

According to Berhampur SP Saravana Vivek M, Pramod Kumar Sahu (58) of Berhampur came in contact with Siba, who introduced himself as the tester-cum- facilitator of an unknown company that dealt with antique articles. He told him that his company bought antique articles at exorbitant prices ranging from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore.

Subsequently Pramod received a call from unidentified person who introduced himself as Biswal and tried to convince him that he has genuine antique article which he can sell for around Rs 19 lakh. The caller asked Pramod to come to a lodge in Berhampur where he along with Ajaya showed him a piece of antique glass item which they said was checked, verified and certified by Siba.

They encouraged Pramod to purchase the item by assuring him that their company would buy it from him for at least Rs 50 lakh.

Pramod fell into the trap and agreed to arrange Rs 19 lakh. He met the accused persons on November 27 morning at Panda Colony and showed them the bag in which he was carrying Rs 19 lakh in cash.

The accused, as part of their plan, arranged a similar hand bag and filled it with bundles of paper. The following day, the accused reached Promod’s residence at 9.30 am in an auto-rickshaw and asked him to hand over his bag containing cash for counting. While counting the cash, the accused slyly replaced his bag with the one which they were carrying and placed it in a trunk at his residence while keeping the keys with them.

The accused then told Pramod that they would get him the glass item from the lodge within 15 to 20 minutes and requested him to send his driver with them to gain his confidence.

Pramod’s driver took the accused to the lodge where he was asked to wait. When they did not turn up for a long time, the driver informed Pramod who then opened the trunk only to find the bag containing paper bundles.

He then reported the matter to police the same afternoon.