Malkangiri: Police have arrested four persons from Maharashtra for duping some members of Marwadi community in a novel way of fraud recently.
Speaking to mediapersons, Malkangiri SDPO Anshuman Dwivedi said a group of people from Maharashtra had come to Malkangiri town with a trained bull decorated like Nandi (the mount of Lord Siva). Later, they along with the bull visited visited the houses of the people in different areas of the town and collected money on the pleas of solving the Vastu problems of their houses.
“The modus operandi of the fraudsters was unique. They would ask Nandi whether there was any Vastu problem in the house and the trained bull would nod or shake its head as a gesture of yes or no. Promising the owner of the house that they would solve the problem within a month, they would collect the money from him and repeat the same in other areas,” the SDPO said.
The matter came to light when a group of the Marwadi community lodged a complaint with the police on March 6 alleging that they had been duped of Rs 48,000 by the Maharashtra men, Dwivedi said.
“Acting on the complaint, a case was registered under Section 420 of the IPC. Later, a special team was formed to nab the fraudsters. In course of the investigation, police came to know that the people belong to Maharashtra. Later, the district police contacted their Maharashtra counterpart to trace the fraudsters. The special team went to Maharashtra and arrested them,” the SDPO said, adding that the arrested will be forwarded to the court after interrogation on Sunday.
