Bhubaneswar: The economic offence wing (EOW) of Odisha Crime Branch Saturday arrested two fraudsters including a godman for duping a contractor of around Rs 3 crore by impersonating themselves as officials of Odisha Tourism Development Corporation (OTDC).
According to an official, the EOW arrested Chandan Akash Mohanty and self-proclaimed godman Bijayananda Choudhury alias Swami Bijayanandaji Maharaj from their residential houses at Nayapalli in Bhubaneswar and CDA locality in Cuttack respectively.
A case has been registered in this connection at EOW police station. The two arrested were forwarded to SDJM Court in Bhubaneswar Sunday, an EOW official said.
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The case was based on FIR lodged by an official from Bhubaneswar OTDC alleging that Chandan was previously working as an assistant engineer in the office on a contractual basis and had hatched a criminal conspiracy with others. He cheated a special class contractor.
Chandan had issued fake work orders to the contractor Dhanurdhar Champatiray and collected huge amount from the latter through his own bank account towards projected EMD against the work orders.
During investigation, it was found that the contractor was eager for work during Covid-19 outbreak. He visited the accused godman at his residence in CDA area in May last year, who impersonated himself as the chairman of OTDC and a bonafide member of the ITDC.
Subsequently, the godman introduced the victim with Chandan. Both managed to collect around Rs 3 crores from the contractor. Rupees 1.14 crore was deposited in the bank account of Chandan.
A detailed probe into the incident is underway, the EOW official informed.
PNN