Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, April 11: Five men impersonating as customs officials were arrested Saturday by Commissionerate police for duping a gold merchant of Rs 42 lakh under Laxmisagar police limits. The police recovered Rs 20.72 lakh from them, along with two four-wheelers and 200 duplicate gold biscuits during a raid at several places. The sixth accused is still at large.
The accused were identified as Himanshu Mohanty alias Bubu (39) of Jagatpur, Batakrushna Pradhan (45) of Kandarpur, Rabi Barik alias Raju (34) of Berhampur, Sivaram Pattnaik alias Tuna (35) of Berhampur and R Haribandhu alias Rankal Haribandhu Reddy (45) of Digapahandi.
Taking a leaf out of Akshay Kumar-starrer Bollywood film Special 26, the six allegedly impersonated as customs officials and hatched a plan to cheat gold merchandiser Sambit Kumar Sahu of Banamalipur, who has been in the business for years.
The five worked meticulously in which Mohanty played the crucial role while Harbandhu acted as a customs constable.
Before approaching the complainant, the gang floated a rumour that some customs officials, who had seized a huge cache of gold, are on the lookout for a buyer. Buying and selling of gold by corrupt customs officials are not uncommon, a source said.
The gang roped in a sixth man, a friend of Sambit, to lure the merchandiser by showing him a real gold biscuit. According to the deal, the complainant reached Bhubaneswar Hotel with Rs 42 lakh March 25 to buy gold biscuits. The accused were already waiting for Sambit and had two similar airbags with them.
One of the accused counted the money and stacked them in one of the airbags. “After a while, they told Sambit they had kept the gold in the car as it was not safe to bring it to the hotel. Pushing one of the airbags towards Sambit, they said ‘you keep your money until we bring up the gold,’ while they walked away with the other bag. The one that was pushed to Sambit had only fake papers in it. They fled with the bag that had Rs 42 lakh,” commissioner of police RP Sharma told the media.
The commissioner called the whole transaction dubious and said the complainant was under the lens. A case (80/15) under section 420 (cheating) of IPC was registered against the accused.