Koraput: A man from Damanjodi Jodi area of Koraput district was arrested for posing as a girl on social media and duping another man of Rs 7 lakh.
The victim has been identified as Jagadish Padhi who hails from Semiliguda town in Koraput district and runs a pharmacy there. The accused has been identified as Pabitra Mohan Mohanty who works as an electrical engineer in Pune and is a resident of Damanjodi.
According to a police official, the accused befriended the victim on Facebook back in 2017 posing as a girl named Debasmita. After chatting online for few months, the duo shared nude pictures among themselves. The accused then started blackmailing the victim by threatening that she would reveal it to her uncle who is posted as DCP of Cuttack.
The victim buckled under pressure and transferred Rs 7.13 lakh to Pabitra’s account over a period of two years.
Things went out of hand, when the accused demanded another Rs 57,000 even though the victim was financially drained by that time. The incident came to fore after Jagadish’s uncle reported the matter to the cops. He stated that his nephew had attempted to commit suicide thrice in the past over this matter.
Police investigation revealed that Pabitra had created a fake profile on Facebook in the name of Debasmita and trapped Jagadish. Besides, during the course of investigation, police generated an account statement of the victim from where they got to know the details of the beneficiary.
Besides, the mobile number on which the accused was calling the victim was put on tracking. This eventually led to the arrest of the accused. Pabitra was produced in the court Saturday.
PNN