Berhampur: A man was defrauded of Rs 16 lakh by a bus owner on the pretext of selling a bus in Ganjam district, police said Thursday. The matter came to the fore after the victim Pramod Kumar Bisoyi lodged a complaint at Kodala police station in the district. Police registered a case and launched an investigation. In his complaint, Bisoyi alleged he had held discussions with a person identified as Santosh Pati to buy his bus (OD 07H 3099) at a price of Rs 16 lakh. He first paid Rs 9.60 lakh to Pati which included cash worth Rs 7.40 lakh and Rs 2.20 lakh online transfer to Pati’s bank account to buy his bus.
Later, he paid Rs 6.70 lakh in Pati’s account towards the outstanding dues of bank finance for the bus and received a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the bank. Later, bus owner Pati called Bisoyi to Chhatrapur RTO office and made him sign some papers. However, he sold the bus permit to another person and assured him that the ownership of the bus would soon be transferred to his name within a few days. The bus developed some technical snags in February, 2020 for which Bisoyi took it to a garage for repair.
However, the bus remained in the garage as it could not be repaired due to closure during the Covid-19 pandemic. The fraud came to the fore when Bisoyi visited the garage in September 2020 to enquire about the status of the bus. He was stunned when the garage owner informed him that the bus had been taken away by Pati. When he contacted Pati, he abused him and said that the bus had been sold to another person.
