Balasore: Special Judge EOW Court Biswajit Das Saturday convicted two fraudsters and sentenced them to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment (RI) along with a fine of Rs3 lakh each in a cheating case. The convicts will further undergo imprisonment of two years each in default of fine, the judge ordered.
The convict duo identified as Bijay Bharadwaj and Himanshu Bhandari from Noida, Uttar Pradesh were tried by the court under different sections of IPC, Sections 66 (C) & 66 (D) of IT Act and found guilty. The court after examining eight witnesses and 41 exhibits pronounced the verdict. Both the convicts would undergo different jail terms under different sections which would run concurrently.
The two accused had duped one Pramod Kumar Rout, a businessman of Joda, Keonjhar of Rs2.35 crore on the pretext of paying him Rs3 crore, under ‘Pradhan Mantri Rahat Kosh Yojana’ against his insurance policy with Max New York Life, using the forged and manipulated documents.
Pramod Kumar Rout had one policy in Max New York Life Insurance Company. In 2019, he received a call from fraudsters who impersonated AK Walia, the Fund Releasing Head of Ministry of Finance. He told Pramod that his insurance policy has been selected for a reward under ‘Pradhan Mantri Rahat Kosh Yojona’ and an amount of Rs3 crore will be released to his account. Being induced, the victim transferred around Rs2.35 crores in instalments believing that after these procedures he would get the reward money. When no amount was received under ‘Pradhan Mantri Rahat Kosh Yojana’, Pramod realised that he had been cheated by the fraudsters.
The fraudsters had sent many fake letters on WhatsApp to the informant issued by the Ministry of Finance, RBI, and Income Tax department and images of two bank demand drafts in favour of the informant amounting to Rs1,27,73,000 and Rs70,81,800. These letters and documents were found to be fake and forged.
During the investigation, it was found that out of the fraud amount of Rs2.35 crore, Rs63,09,896 and Rs79 lakh had been transferred to the accounts of accused Himansu Bhandari and Bijay Bharadwaj respectively and they misappropriated the money. Himansu Bhandari and Bijay Bharadwaj were arrested March 15, 2022 and November 9, 2022 respectively from Uttar Pradesh.
PNN & Agencies
