Bhubaneswar: The Special Task Force (STF) of the Crime Branch Sunday arrested Kahnu Charan Pradhan, the mastermind of the cheating and impersonation case, a notification issued by STF read.
Earlier, the STF had arrested Kishore Kumar Mishra in connection with the case.
An STF source said that Kishore Mishra and some others were working in close association and under the leadership of Pradhan.
Pradhan is a resident of Tangi, Khordha, but has been living in Bhubaneswar. He earlier used to run a liquor shop, added the source.
An FIR in this regard was lodged April 25, 2023, at the Koraput Town Police Station. Subsequently, the STF took over the case.
The source went on to say that several cases have been registered against Pradhan in the past. He has been involved in at least four more cases. Many people had saved his number as Secretary, Additional Secretary, the source added.
Expensive mobile phones, forged government notifications, orders, and other incriminating documents have been seized from him. Pradhan had fled to Thailand and had recently returned to Odisha, informed the source.
It is also suspected that this group published some fake job advertisements in some newspapers.
This group used to cheat and extort people claiming to be RTI activists and also fool people into thinking that they had close proximity with senior officers and could get them crusher licenses, liquor licenses, transfers, and postings, added the source.
According to the source, the group is indulging in cheating and impersonation at various places in Odisha. The group uses some mule bank accounts, including some accounts of dead people. They trick people by saving their numbers as some senior officers, and when people verify it on ‘True Caller,” they start trusting them as genuine, concluded the source.
UNI