Conman arrested by Odisha Crime Branch for exploiting, capturing intimate moments of women in several states

The Cyber Crime unit of Odisha CID, Crime Branch has arrested a conman on the charges of sexually exploiting women in different parts of the country. The accused has been identified as Biranchi Narayan Nath of Chhendipada in Angul District.

The accused mostly targeted several middle-aged women, looking for second marriage. Apart from sexually exploiting the victims, the accused used to extort money from them as well.

Tricks Adopted By Conman

Senior Crime Branch officials informed that the accused had created a profile on a matrimonial website, under the tagline "Second Marriage”. The accused would identify himself as a Railway Employee, Income Tax Inspector or an Officer in the Customs & Central Excise Department etc.

Who Were The Targets?

The accused mostly targeted middle-aged women who were unmarried, separated, widows or divorced women. The accused first used to approach victims by sending marriage requests through the website, phone conversations and home visits. He used to emotionally manipulate the victims by promising lifelong support for their children and companionship.

After gaining trust, the accused used to marry them in temples and later used to stay with them at their home but never took any of them to his own place. He used to secretly capture intimate moments with them and also took nude photos and videos of many of the victims through video calls, informed senior officials. On the basis of these videos, the accused used to extort money from the victims in the shape of cash, gold and other valuables by threatening them to make public their private photos and videos on social media.

How The Conman Was Arrested?

A Cuttack-based woman, who lost her husband in a road mishap in 2022, had lodged a formal complaint with the Cyber Crime Unit of CID-Crime Branch. The woman was staying with her two daughters and in a bid to secure her future, she decided to remarry. In 2023, she had registered in the matrimonial portal in which the accused had several fake profiles.

According to officials, the victim received a request from one Pravakar Srivastav from Khamar, Talcher. He claimed to be a TTI in Railways at Visakhapatnam. On October 7, 2023, Pravakar visited the victim’s home and expressed his desire to proceed with the marriage proposal. While the victim’s family asked for some time to decide, he started calling her frequently and trapped her emotionally.

“During video calls, he clandestinely captured her nude videos. He later took her on trips outside Odisha too. Using those videos he forced her into physical relationships at multiple locations. He lived with her in her house for five months and continued to exploit her sexually and financially. He also physically assaulted her, whenever she resisted. The victim endured this abuse out of fear of public humiliation due to the threat of her private videos being made public. He extracted around Rs.5 lakh and 32 grams of gold from her,” police said in a statement.

Accused Involved In Similar Cases Outside Odisha

During the investigation, it has been found that the cases have been registered against the accused at various police stations, including Berhampur, two cases in Angul Town police station and Jarpada, Balasore Sadar police station, Rourkela, Dhenkanal and Nayapalli PS and Balipatna Police stations in Bhubaneswar. The accused is also involved in similar cases in states such as Rajasthan, West Bengal, Maharastra, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi.