Bhadrak: A 42-year-old man was arrested by the Odisha Police from West Bengal’s Purba Medinipur district for allegedly cheating several people by promising them government jobs while posing as the personal assistant of state ministers, officials said.
Jagannath Bahalia of Chudakuti in Odisha’s Bhadrak district allegedly used photographs with senior political leaders to convince youths that he had strong political connections, they said.
Bahalia claimed to have access to the chief minister, deputy chief minister, education minister and even the personal secretary of the prime minister, they added.
The alleged fraud came to light after Kishore Mohapatra, a retired government employee from Simulia in neighbouring Balasore district, lodged an FIR against Bahalia on Monday.
Mohapatra alleged that Bahalia had taken Rs 10 lakh from him, promising to secure a railway job for his son and later handed him a fake appointment letter.
“After receiving the complaint, we launched a search for the accused. He switched off his mobile phone and fled to Digha in West Bengal, where he was arrested on Tuesday night,” Bhadrak Town police IIC Prabhanshu Mishra said.
Police said a diary was allegedly seized from his rented house in Jagannathpur in Bhadrak town, containing details of financial transactions involving large sums of money.
A number of documents and purported fake identity papers bearing photographs and names of ministers and their PAs were also recovered, they said.
Bahalia had allegedly collected more than Rs 1 crore from several job seekers by promising them government employment, they said.
Following his arrest, alleged victims from Baleshwar, Kataka and other areas have started approaching police with complaints, they said.
Police said a similar case involving Bahalia is also pending in Kataka.
During interrogation, he allegedly confessed to using false credentials to convince people that he could arrange government jobs, collecting money from them and issuing fake appointment letters, they said.
The accused was produced before a court, which remanded him to judicial custody for 14 days.
Preliminary investigation suggests that Bahalia had contacts outside Odisha, including in Digha and Jharkhand’s Dhanbad, police said.
