Rourkela: Police Friday arrested a man and his brother-in-law for allegedly impersonating Odisha vigilance officials and extorting money from government officers by threatening them with dire consequences, an official said.
The accused have been identified as Ganesh Prasad Nanda and his brother-in-law Pradeep Kumar Panda, police said.
The arrest was made on the basis of a complaint filed by a senior OAS officer, who alleged that the duo had extorted Rs 4 lakh from him, they said.
Impersonating ‘Tripathy Babu’, an additional SP-rank Vigilance officer, Nanda informed the complainant that a disproportionate assets case had been registered against him, Rourkela SP Nitesh Wadhwani said.
Wadhwani said Nanda demanded Rs 8 lakh to “dispose of” the case but later agreed to settle the matter for Rs 4 lakh, which was transferred to his bank account.
During the course of investigation, it was established that Nanda was a habitual fraudster indulging in extorting money with the help of co-accused Panda from different government officials by introducing himself as additional SP, vigilance over phone since 2021, he said.
“They both extorted lakhs of rupees from as many as 18-20 government officials of Sundargarh, Keonjhar, Deogarh and other districts by misusing the name of vigilance,” the SP told reporters.
The accused allegedly threatened to conduct raids on the victims’ houses on allegations of possessing disproportionate assets. Several officials gave in to the demands to avoid social embarrassment, he said.
“The case is under progress, and the bank accounts and assets of the accused are being verified,” the SP added.
Police have recovered 38 debit cards, passbooks of 43 banks, 37 chequebooks, 10 mobile phones and other documents from the accused.
PTI
