Odisha: Economic Offences Wing, Bhubaneswar has arrested two fraudsters impersonating themselves as RAW, IAS and PWD officers. Cheating of Rs 1.17 crore from a father-son are on these two fraudsters, on the pretext of
providing contracts in the Public Works department.
EOW sources said the arrested two fraudsters are Surymani Tripathy and Amit Kumar from Cuttack and Bhubaneswar respectively on the basis of a complainant filed by one
Rikab Chand Munot @ Mukesh Jain, Proprietor of M/s Rashtriya Stainless Steel, Jindal House, Asaf Ali Road, New Delhi.
They are being forwarded to the court of SDJM, Bhubaneswar. The complainant alleged that the accused Rajesh Gahlot, Surya Mani Triapthy and Amit Kumar by entering into criminal conspiracy with another accused had cheated the complainant and his son with the help of another lady who impersonated as Treasury Officer in respect of Rs.1.17crores on the pretext of arranging work orders for them in Works Department of Odisha government.
Rikab Chand Munot @ Mukesh Jain is the Proprietor of M/s Rashtriya Stainless Steel,1/9-B, Jindal House, Asaf Ali Road, New Delhi – 110002. He has a Branch Office at Kalinganagar, Bhubaneswar, the Proprietor of which was his son Akshay Munot @ Jain. During 2017, the complainant through one of his friends came in contact with Rajesh who
introduced himself as an officer of RAW having many IAS officers in Odisha as his friends. He subsequently introduced the Complainant and his son Akshay to accused Suryamani Tripathy at Odisha Niwas, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi as an IAS Officer, posted as Addl. Secretary to
Government of Odisha in the Public Works Department.
They both assured the complainant and his son to help them in getting high value government contracts under “Pradhan Mantree Yojana” in Odisha. Subsequently, in January, 2018, being called upon by Suryamani Tripathy for executing agreement with PWD, the complainant and his son came to the office of EIC, Nirman Soudha, Bhubaneswar, where, one accused Amit was introduced to them by Mr Tripathy as an Engineer working with PWD.
Both Suryamani and Amit took the complainant and his son to Bhubaneswar Court and prepared the agreements papers.
In March-2018, Suryamani and Amit called the complainant and his son to Bhubaneswar and asked them to deposit a sum of Rs.25 lakhs in the Treasury for registering their firm for issuance of work order. Being persuaded by them, the complainant accompanied both the accused to the premises of Government Treasury, at Odisha Assembly Campus, and paid cash of Rs.25 lakhs to one lady at the instance of the accused person.
Suryamani collected a treasury receipt in respect of Rs.25 lakhs and handed over the same to the Complainant.
Subsequently Suryamani handed over two work orders to the complainant, purportedly issued by Asst. Engineer, O/o EIC(Civil) Nirman Soudha, BBSR for the contract value of Rs.7 crore on March 15, 2018. Again on August 21, 2018 two work orders having contract value of Rs.32.52 crores and Rs.47.52crores were also issued. These accused persons went on collecting money under different pleas/ pretext to expedite the process. Suryamani also handed over a fake letter, purportedly signed by Accounts Officer O/o EIC (Civil), Nirman Soudha, Bhubaneswar addressed to Branch Manager, Axis Bank, Unit-IV, Bhubaneswar requesting to transfer an amount of Rs.1.52 crores & Rs.3.16 crores (i.e. totaling to Rs.4.68 cores) towards the 20 per cent advance against the work order to the account of M/s Rashtriya Stainless Steel, Bhubaneswar maintained with SBI, Axis Bank, Unit-IV, BBSR branch and insisted the
complainant to sign on Money receipts against receipt of above money .
Accordingly, the son of the complainant gave two money receipts of 4.68 crores but no amount was transferred to his Account.
When no work was assigned, the complainant started doubting the conduct of the accused persons and sought information under RTI about the accused persons and the work order given to them and came to know that all the documents including the Treasury Receipt are fake and so also the identity of the accused persons. Suryamani Tripathy has been working as a clerk in the office of directorate of Technical Education & Training, Cuttack, whereas Amit Kumar is unemployed. Fake work orders, agreements, treasury receipts have been seized. It is suspected that the accused might have cheated many other persons too. Investigation of the case is continuing to identify and nab the other accused persons involved in this case and in similar kinds of frauds.
