Post News Network
Choudwar, Dec 14: Choudwar police claimed to have busted an inter-district gang of robbers with the arrest of three of its members Saturday.
A Maruti Suzuki Swift car, `10,62,200, three cell phones, two ATM cards and a CD containing CCTV footage were recovered from the accused identified as Rajnarayan Patnaik alias Kunu (32) of Cuttack Nuapada, Chittaranjan Rath of Kisan Nagar and Sridhar Mohapatra (41) of Kakatpur, deputy commissioner of police Sanjiv Arora told mediapersons.The three were arrested on charges of defrauding Sudam Charan Bhadra, a retired employee of HAL.
They met Bhadra, a resident of Kochila Nuagaon under the police limits, in the guise of a manager and field officers of a bank and told him that the Centre has decided to come up with a godown at the village to store agriculture produce as part of a government project. They also promised him a job at a godown.
On winning Bhadra’s confidence, the three got Bhadra’s fixed deposit bond worth `10 lakh, two ATM cards and a bank passbook on the pretext of official work at bank. They later took him to the SBI branch at Charbatia and Kalyani Nagar, where he was kept standing outside. After a while, the three asked Bhadra to go home. They then withdrew `10,62,200 from SBI ATMs. Bhadra filed a complaint with Choudwar police after he realized that he had been duped.
Choudwar police inspector-in-charge Ajay Das and assistant commissioner of police Trinath Mishra arrested the trio from a private office based on footage of CCTV cameras installed at ATM kiosks where the accused had withdrawn money.
The three were habitual offenders and had duped several persons in Cuttack, Puri and Sundargarh districts. Similar complaints were filed against the trio with Papdahandi police in Nabarangpur. A case was registered in this connection and the trio was produced in court following the arrest, said the DCP, adding that investigation is on to unravel the nexus of bank officials with the robbers.