BHUBANESWAR: The economic offences wing (EOW) of the state Crime Branch arrested a man, who is believed to an officer with the country's elite Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), for allegedly cheating a Delhi-based businessman of Rs 1.17 crore by promising him to get important tenders of the works department.
The accused was identified as Rajesh Kumar Gahlot. The EOW seized his identity card that described him as a senior research officer with the RAW in Delhi. Though the EOW assumes that Gahlot is a RAW officer, they have sent his details to the Cabinet Secretariat for verification.
After arresting Gahlot from Delhi on Sunday, the EOW produced him before the Dwarka metropolitan magistrate, which granted him five-day transit bail and directed him to appear before the court of the sub-divisional judicial magistrate (SDJM) in Bhubaneswar on or before December 24. Delhi-based businessman Rikab Chand Munot had lodged a complaint with the EOW in October this year against Gahlot and two of his associates, Suryamani Tripathy and Amit Kumar, for taking Rs 1.17 crore from him and giving him two fake work orders, each to the tune of Rs 32.52 crore and 47.52 crore in 2018.
"We arrested Tripathy and Kumar, who belonged to Odisha. They had posed as IAS officers in the state works department. But they turned out to be conmen. Gahlot, who is the mastermind, had introduced Munot to Tripaty and Kumar. We were looking for Gahlot," a senior EOW officer said.
In his complaint, Munot said one of his friends had introduced him to Gahlot at Delhi in 2017. Gahlot introduced himself as senior RAW officer, having contacts with IAS officers in Odisha. He demanded Rs 2 lakh for facilitating a meeting with a senior works department officer. "I transferred Rs 2 lakh to his bank account. After some days, Gahlot introduced me to Tripathy at Odisha Niwas in Delhi. The duo assured me to get multi-crore work contracts related to supply and installation of pipeline projects and painting work of bridges in Odisha," Munot's complaint read.
