A couple was arrested by police for duping a music teacher of Rs 7 lakh, promising the latter to arrange a musical show abroad.
The couple was identified as Sephalika Mohanty, a classical dancer and her husband, Debasis Mohanty, hailing from Balikuda block and the victim music teacher who lodged an FIR in Jagatsinghpur police station is Banita Mohapatra, a resident of Sipi Mukundapur village here. Reports said that Banita runs a music school in her village where teenaged students had been learning music. Sephalika had been visiting the music school for imparting classical music to students.
Using her closeness to Banita, three months back Sephalika offered a proposal that she had arranged shows for the music school students in Dubai, Singapore and US. For preparing aspirant students' passports, visa and plane tickets, she takes Rs 50, 000 each, Sephalika had reported told. Soon Banita had taken interest in it and asked a few affluent students' guardians to bear the cost of the foreign trip. As many as 12 parents agreed and deposited money with Banita, who transferred the money about Rs 7 lakh to Sephalika for arranging the required documents and air tickets for her students. However, after months passed, Sephalika could not confirm the schedule of the foreign trip. Strangely, she remained incommunicado later on.
Later, Banita lodged an FIR in Jagatsinghpur police station. During investigation, police could know that the accused had duped many music schools in Brahmapur and Bhubaneswar on pretext of a foreign trip.
However, when Banita gathered secret information that the couple had been residing in Bhubaneswar in a deserted location, she shared info to Jagatsinghpur cops on October 29. On a tip-off, the police raided residence and picked up Sephalika and her husband on Saturday night. They were sent to jail custody after their bail pleas were rejected by court, informed Jagatsinghpur police station IIC PC Sahoo.