Police have arrested a cyber scammer who duped the manager of a private hospital in Cuttack of Rs 46,000 posing as Agriculture Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain.
The accused was identified as Soumyaranjan Pradhan alias Sulagna of Kishornagar in Angul district. The accused is a transgender.
The manager of the hospital received a telephonic call from an unknown mobile number who posed himself as the Personal Assistant (PA) of the Minister citing an urgent matter and said the Minister wished to speak to her personally. After that the fraudster spoke to her in the disguised voice of the Minister and told her that a woman was organising a Puja and havan for which she required ghee weighing around 31 kg.
The impostre asked her to contribute the ghee which amounted to Rs 46,000 to the havan as a goodwill gesture. However, after paying the money through a UPI app, she discovered that there was no call from the actual Minister or his PA and she has been cheated. When she called back to the said number, it was found switched off.
Police conducted a probe after receiving the complaint and found that the accused had been to Delhi two years ago where he learned how to commit cyber crime. After returning to Odisha he had been to the residence of the Minster with his Kinnar Group seeking donation where she learnt the style of talking of the Minister.
As per the police, more than 100 people have been duped by the accused till now who siphoned off more than Rs 10 lakh from them.