Hinjilicut: Hinjilicut police nabbed a six-member gang here Friday evening for allegedly collecting Rs 5,00,000 from two persons on the pretext of providing them with agencies of reputed gas companies.
The arrested members are Manoj Satapathy of Shastri Nagar in Berhampur, Bidyadhar Panda of Aankoli, Ramesh Patra of Station Road, Basant Kumar Sahoo of Aska and Jibitesh Mahanty of Tulashipur village in Cuttack district. Police also seized a car and various documents from their possession.
“In order to verify the authenticity of the documents, we will conduct an investigation,” said IIC Prashant Kumar Sahoo. After registering different cases, the accused were produced in court Saturday.
According to reports, the accused introduced themselves to Ajit Kumar Sabat of Hinjilicut and Chandra Sekhar Sabat of Saru village near Hinjilicut as Indian Oil Corporation Limited employees and close to Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Later they coaxed Ajit and Chandra Sekhar to pay Rs 4,00,000 and Rs 1,00,000 respectively by promising gas agency in the names of Ajit’s mother and Chandrasekhar’s wife.
Few days later, Ajit received a letter addressed to his mother’s name through a registered post. Ajit went to the IOCL office in Bhubaneswar to know the next procedures but he found that the documents were fake.
The accused had told them that they would come Friday for land measurement and to take the rest of the amount.
Ajit lodged a complaint to the police to take steps accordingly. The police laid a trap and were present at the designated spot in mufti and nabbed them.
PNN
