Bhubaneswar: Two persons were on Wednesday arrested for allegedly robbing and extorting visitors at the popular Khandagiri hills tourist site in Bhubaneswar by posing as cops.
The duo have been identified as Joseph M E, originally from Kerala, and Jitendra Samantaray, a local resident of the Jagamara area under Khandagiri police limits.
According to sources, they had been operating in the area, falsely claiming to be IIC and SI of Khandagiri police stations and extorting money from visitors. A complaint in this regard was lodged at Khandagiri police station a few days ago and the two accused were caught this afternoon while harassing some tourists. Photos of young couples were also found in their mobile phones.
“The accused have been arrested and further investigation is underway. We are now looking into their criminal antecedents,” ACP Tapas Chandra Pradhan told reporters.
Notably, Odisha has seen a series of similar cases involving fraudsters masquerading as officials to extract money.
On December 13, Odisha vigilance and Rourkela police arrested two men from Sonepur district for allegedly extorting Rs 4 lakh from a senior OAS officer in Bonai block of Sundargarh district. The accused posed as vigilance officers and threatened to implicate the officer in corruption cases. In another high-profile case from August, the Bidhannagar Cyber Crime Police has arrested three youths from Odisha, who had put a 68-year-old retired Coal India employee under “digital arrest” for four days in July and defrauded him of Rs 1.1 crore.
