The Patkura police registered a case and started an inquiry against a conman for duping a woman of Rs 1 lakh on the plea of providing jobs to her sons. He issued her children with fake joining letters containing forged signature of 5T Secretary VK Pandian, informed Kendrapada SP Madkar Sandeep Sampat.
Parbati Behera, wife of Rajib Lochan Behera of Talakusuma village under Patkura police station, lodged an FIR against conman Maheswar Pradhan of Gopalpur.
Parbati in her FIR alleged that she came in contact with Maheswar through Whatsapp. Maheswar allegedly managed to develop a relationship with her by identifying himself as an Administrative Officer in the Odisha Government, she said.
Later Maheswar assured her of providing jobs to her two sons, Rashmi Ranjan Behera and Satyaranjan Behera, and her daughter, Smrutimayee Behera in the Revenue Department. He asked her to provide Rs 1 lakh for processing the documents of her children and Parbati, believing him, obliged. She provided Rs 1 lakh to Pradhan along with the documents of her children.
Subsequently, Maheswar sent the joining letters of her children by registered post and they came with the signature of Pandian.
In the joining letter, while it was directed to Smrutimayee to join as LD clerk in Sakhi Gopal block in PR Department, Rashmi Ranjan was directed to join as peon at Basudevpur block and Satya Ranjan was asked to join as peon in PR Department.
When Rashmi Ranjan went to Basudevpur block office to join holding the joining letter, the authority was surprised as he had not received any communication in this regard from the Government of Odisha.
Similarly, Smrutimayee also went with the 5T Secretary signed letter to Sakhigopal block office. She too faced the same fate like her brother there. Later, the real face of conman Maheswar was known.
Parbati soon tried several times to contact Maheswar, but the latter’s mobile phone was found switched off. Confirmed that she had been taken for a ride, Parbati lodged an FIR in the Patkura police station.