Bhubaneswar: The Odisha STF on Sunday arrested one Kanhu Charan Pradhan, the alleged mastermind of the thuggery/cheating/impersonation case. His close associates Kishore Mishra and some others were arrested earlier.
Pradhan is a resident of Tangi, Khurda, but has been living in Bhubaneswar. He is a graduate and used to run a liquor shop earlier.
A case in this connection was initially registered at Koraput Town PS On April 25 this year. Later, the investigation was taken over by the STF. Several cases are registered against Kanhu at different police stations in the state.
Expensive mobile phones, forged/fake government notifications/orders, and other incriminating documents have been seized from his possession. Pradhan had fled to Thailand and recently returned to Odisha. It is suspected that this group had published some fake job advertisements in some newspapers.
According to reports, this group used to cheat/extort people claiming to be RTI activists and also fool people that they have close proximity with senior officers and can get them stone crusher licenses, liquor licenses, transfer/posting, etc. This group is indulging in thuggery/cheating/impersonation at various places in Odisha. It was also noticed that this group uses some mule bank accounts, including accounts of dead persons.
They trick people by saving their numbers as some senior government officers and when people verify it on the ‘Truecaller’ app they start trusting them as genuine.
Further investigation into the case is underway.
