The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Odisha Police on Saturday arrested a fraudster, who impersonated Home Department officials to dupe around 40 people of Rs 1.47 crore on the pretext of getting them jobs in the police.

The arrested accused, Jayanta Mohanty from Chandaneswar of the Balasore district, was booked under sections 419/420/467/468/471/120-B of Indian Penal Code and was remanded to judicial custody. Earlier two persons were also arrested in this connection.

The accused impersonated as officials of Home Department and cheated of Rs 1.47 crore from 40 job aspirants on the pretext of enlisting their names in the supplementary selection list of Combined Police Service Examination-2013. The arrested persons had taken 38 job aspirants for a ride on the pretext of enlisting their names in the supplementary selection list of Combined Police Service Examination-2013, said Deputy Inspector General of police, STF, Jai Narayan Pankaj.

The job aspirants, who were duped by the duo, had appeared in Combined Police Service Examination, 2013 (CPSE-2013) conducted by Odisha Staff Selection Commission for the post of Sub Inspectors of Police, Sergeant and Deputy Subedar. They had qualified the written test and appeared in the viva-voce test. The final merit list of the selected candidates was published in December, 2016. But their names did not figure in the list of successful candidates. But the duo had given them the impression that there would be a second supplementary list.

The accused persons had later assured the aspirants to enlist their name in the supplementary selection list and had demanded Rs.5 to 6 lakhs from each of them. Being influenced by the glib-talking duo; the job-seekers had paid the fraudsters Rs 1.47 crore from May 2020 to November 2020. However the job seekers later found that they had been duped as the second supplementary list was not published by CPSE.

The ‘duped’ job-seekers had the amount both through bank accounts and in cash. It was also revealed during investigation that one of the accused persons had retired as the Senior Grade Recorder from the Higher Education Department.

Meanwhile the EOW, suspecting that more people might have been duped by the duo, has appealed to them to come forward with a police complaint in this regard.