Bhubaneswar: What would you do when somebody offers a huge discount on a brand new Apple i-phone? Like many others, karate player Valena Valentina too got tempted by such offer, but the surprise soon became the shocker of her life after she found that the phone was a stolen one.
Not only Valena, several government officers and traders have fallen prey to such lucrative offers of a conman who has now been arrested by the Commissionerate Police. From posing as the chief of Google’s Odisha unit to chief commercial tax officer (CTO), the conman identified as Soumyajit Tripathy has duped many.
“I got a call from the special squad yesterday and learnt that the phone which I was using is a stolen one. The accused had earlier taken some money from us and later he gave the phone whose market prices is Rs 72,000 by offering a discount of Rs 10,000,” said Valena.
According to Valena, Tripathy had again approached her recently to sell laptop and some other electronic gadgets.
According to senior police officials, Tripathy used to target businessmen and shops selling mobile phones, laptops and other fitness equipment. Posing as a government official, he used to take the goods and decamp without making payments to the owners.
"Tripathy is a mechanical engineer and posing as a senior government officer he used to book goods from various shops and later after taking delivery, he used to decamp without making payments," said Bhubaneswar DCP Anup Sahoo.
“So far we have got evidences regarding the involvement of the accused in three cases. We are investigating whether he has duped people in other districts or not,” said Sahoo.
Commissionerate Police has recovered several electronic items including mobile phones and laptops worth Rs 10 lakh from the possession of the accused.