Bhubaneswar, Mar 20: Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Bhubaneswar has arrested a fraudster on the charge of cheating an individual of more than Rs 2.35 crore impersonating as senior government and RBI officials.
EOW sources on Sunday said the accused, Himanshu Bhandari was arrested on March 15 from Noida, Uttar Pradesh U/s 419/420/465/467/468/471/170/120-B IPC r.w. Sec. 66 of IT Act, 2000. A day after his arrest, he was produced before the ACJM First, Surajpur Court, Greater Noida, and brought to Bhubaneswar on transit remand.
He was produced before the JMFC, Barbil on Saturday, March 19 last. A case was registered against Bhandari based on a complaint filed by one Pramod Kumar Rout of Joda of Keonjhar district. Pramod alleged that Bhandari and others cheated him to the tune of more than Rs. 2.35 crores in the guise of paying him Rs. 3 cores from the Union government under Pradhan Mantri Rahat Kosh Yojona against his Insurance Policy with Max NewYork Life, using the forged and manipulated documents.
In the case investigation, it was found that Pramod holds a policy with Max New York Life Insurance Company since March-2012. In October 2019, he received a call from a person who identified himself as A. K. Walia, Fund Releasing Head, Ministry of Finance, Govt. of India that his Insurance policy has been selected under Pradhan Mantri Rahat Kosh Yojana of the Central government and the Union government will release an amount of Rs 3 crore in his account.
Subsequently, the complainant received a letter in his mobile through Whatsapp, which was issued under the signature of one Suresh Mathur, HOD (Intermediaries) Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority of India (IRDA), wherein it was mentioned: “…..the authority request you to pay dues and receive your fund of Rs 1,56,36,500 (within next 4 hours”. Along with the above letter, he also received some other communications/photographs on his Whatsapp.
Investigation of the case revealed that when Pramod did not respond to the above letter for some days, a series of calls were received by him from different persons and from different mobile numbers, who identified themselves to be employees in the office of A.K. Walia, who persuaded Pramod to transfer cash through RTGS and provided several bank Account numbers. Being persuaded, Pramod transferred around Rs 2.35 crores in instalments from November 19, 2019, to February 4, 2021. When no amount was returned to the complainant, he doubted their activities and on his contact, he found all the mobile numbers from which he had received calls were switched off. Pramod also found letters he had received on WhatsApp issued by the Ministry of Finance, RBI, Income Tax Department, and images of two bank Demand Drafts in favour of complainant amounting to Rs 1,27,73,000 and Rs 70,81,800 to be fake and forged.
During the investigation, it was found that there is no such person like A K Walia instead accused and his gang members were impersonating high-level officials to cheat the complainant. It was found that the accused is one of the members of the gang which is involved in many such cases in various states. Investigation of the case is continuing. Efforts are on to identify/arrest other members of the gang.
