Noida duo gets 10-yr jail in Odisha in cheating case
Lucknow: A court in Balasore has sentenced two persons from Noida in Uttar Pradesh to 10 years in jail for defrauding a businessman from Keonjhar of Rs 2.35 crore.
The duo posed as RBI officers and committed the fraud by falsely promising rewards under the Pradhan Mantri Rahat Kosh Yojana (PMRKY). This is the fifth conviction in a financial fraud case investigated by the economic offences wing (EOW) of the crime branch, in the past one year.
The accused were identified as Bijay Bharadwaj and Himanshu Bhandari. They were found guilty under section 419, 420, 465, 467, 468, 471,170,120-B of the IPC and section 66 (C) and 66 (D) of IT Act. They had been arrested from Noida in 2022.
EOW officials said Pramod Kumar Rout, a businessman from Joda in Keonjhar district lodged the complaint against the duo for cheating him of Rs 2.35 cr promising to pay him Rs 3 cr under Pradhan Mantri Rahat Kosh Yojana (PMRKY).
Pramod had a policy in a private life insurance company. In 2019, he received a call from one of the fraudsters, who posed as A K Walia, fund releasing head, ministry of finance. He told him his insurance policy was selected for reward under PMRKY. “Rout received a letter in his whatsapp, which appeared to have been sent by Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDA). The letter said Rout was required to pay some dues for receiving fund of Rs 156,36,500 within four hours,” said IG (EOW) J N Pankaj.
EOW said subsequently, several persons kept calling Rout identifying themselves as Walia’s office staff and convinced him to pay Rs 3 crore. Rout was ready to pay Rs 2.3 crore under the impression that making this payment will fetch him the reward Walia has been offering.
“All the documents the fraudsters used to woo Rout were forged, including the letters sent to WhatsApp, issued by the ministry of finance, RBI, income tax department. Investigation revealed that Rs 63,09,896 and Rs 79 lakh had been transferred to the accounts of Himansu and Bijay respectively,” Pankaj said. The EOW claimed that it has achieved 100 per cent conviction in cases involving financial frauds.
