By Biswanath Dash
BHUBANESWAR: STF arrested another accused namely Laxman Madhi S/o.Erma Madhi of Ambaguda under Kalimela PS of Malkanagiri in the case of the Thuggery, Cheating, impersonation. Earlier STF had arrested the mastermind Kanhu Charan Pradhan and Kishore Mishra.
The arrested accused person is the close associate of mastermind Kanhu Charan Pradhan. Huge transaction have been made in the bank account of Laxman Madhi i.e. more than 60 Lakhs and there was also frequent conversation with mastermind Kanhu Charan Pradhan.
This refers to STF case no 15/2023. This case was initially registered at Koraput Town PS vide case no- 122/2023, 419/420/465/468/470/471/34 IPC, Dated25.04.2023. Later the investigation was taken over by STF.
Several cases have been registered against the mastermind Kandhu Charan Pradhan in the past and have been involved in six similar cases. Many people had saved his number as secretary/Addl secretary etc. Earlier Expensive mobile phones, forged/fake Government notification/orders and other incriminating documents were seized from Kanhu Pradhan.
This group used to cheat/ extort people claiming to be RTI activists and also fooling people that they have close proximity with senior officers and can get them crusher license, liquor license, transfer/posting etc.
This group is indulging in Thuggery/Cheating/ impersonation at various places in Odisha. It was also noticed that thisgroup uses some mule bank accounts including some accounts of dead persons. They trick people by saving their numbers as some senior officers and when people verify it on ‘True-caller” they start trusting them as genuine.
In this way they have cheated the people. So far, investigation has revealed that there was more than Rs40 crores transactions made in the accounts of Kanhu Pradhan and his associates. Further investigation is on.
