Bhubaneswar: An alert citizen’s timely information helped Bhubaneswar police foil a planned burglary and insurance fraud, leading to the arrest of 13 people who were preparing to execute the crime, officials said on Thursday.
According to Bhubaneswar DCP Jagmohan Meena, the mastermind, Santosh Kumar Moharana, has been running a plywood business at Tamando Bazar since 2016 but had been facing severe financial distress due to business losses.
Unable to pay house rent for the past one and a half years and burdened with a loan of ₹3 lakh, Moharana allegedly conspired with his former employee, Manoj Sejpada, to stage a fake burglary at his own shop in a bid to claim insurance money.
Acting on a tip-off from a vigilant citizen, Tamando police conducted a raid around 2:30 am on Thursday and apprehended Moharana, Sejpada, and 11 others while they were attempting to commit the staged burglary.
Police seized five vehicles, two mobile phones, and burglary tools including cutting machines, face masks, flashlights, iron rods, gloves, and knives from their possession.
“During interrogation, it was revealed that Moharana had promised to pay ₹1,000 to each of his associates initially, and ₹5,000 more after receiving the insurance claim. The remaining amount was to be shared between Moharana and Sejpada,” DCP Meena said.
Interestingly, police found that the prime accused had learned the technique of staging such crimes by watching videos on YouTube, Meena added.
The DCP commended the alert citizen whose information helped prevent both a crime and a fraudulent insurance claim.
