The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch have arrested two persons from Mumbai on charges of duping a developer of Odisha. The accused have been identified as Rakesh Kumar Girija Shankar Pandey and Sarman Singh Tomar.
Both the accused were arrested on March 26 and have been brought to Odisha on transit remand. While Sarman Singh Tomar runs an illegal Hawala business in Mumbai, Rakesh Pandey, a native of Uttar Pradesh, is a veteran criminal and extortionist having numerous criminal cases pending against him in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.
Both the accused were arrested based on the complaint filed by Ashok Kumar Singh. The complainant had alleged that Sarman and Rakesh had duped him to the tune of Rs 2 crore on the pretext of financing Rs 100 crore for his business.
It is pertinent to mention here that Singh, who is into real-estate business in Odisha, had suffered losses during the Covid 19 pandemic.
In June, 2021, Singh came in contact with Rakesh Pandey who assured him of arranging a finance of Rs. 100 crores. However, Rakesh demanded Rs. 2 crores so that the fund could be raised immediately.
“Subsequently, the complainant went to Mumbai and arranged cash of Rs. 2 crores with the help of his business partner and paid the amount to the accused persons. He also received several emails promising sanction of the loan amount,” EOW said in a release.
During investigation, it was found that the accused had cheated the complainant on the pretext of arranging loan. Several incriminating documents, debit cards, credit cards and cheques of different banks, mobile phones, one pistol with 8 rounds of live ammunitions and cash of Rs 50,000 has been seized from the possession of accused Rakesh Pandey.
Police said Pandey is involved in at least 15 crimes like fraud, dacoity, robbery, swindling, forgery, attempt to murder and impersonation in different police station areas of Mumbai, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.