: A woman who tried to swindle police personnel to grab ex-gratia money for a deceased in the Bahanaga train accident was caught and later, let off with a warning.
Reports said the woman identified as Gitanjali Dutta of Maniabandha under Badamba area of Cuttack district arrived on Sunday at the NOCCI Business Park at Baleswar where a temporary mortuary has been erected by the district administration. She claimed a body to be her husband and wanted to take it, besides the ex gratia amount of Rs 10 lakh.
Notably, the Railways is providing Rs 50,000 cash and the rest amount of Rs 9.5 lakh by cheque to the next of kin of the deceased after verifying the documents.
Dutta produced documents including Aadhaar card of self and her husband identifying him as Bijay Dutta. The police deployed at the spot, however, had a doubt over the documents and her statements although she tried to play emotional card as a bereaved wife grieving over loss of her husband. The police immediately contacted their counterparts at Badamba to verify the facts.
To their utter surprise they came to know the woman tried to dupe the Railway personnel by giving false documents since her husband was alive and working elsewhere. When the police asked her to give the phone number of her husband, she couldn’t provide. As the fraud was detected, the woman sought apology from police.