JOIN USBangalore cops nab woman in Odisha
The Bangalore Police have arrested a 23-year-old woman in Bhubaneswar on the charges of cheating students of different plus two and engineering colleges with the help of their Odisha counterparts.
Shraddha Shashwathi Mohanty had collected huge sums of money from the students, promising training and jobs at the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro).
“The woman was arrested at her residence at Sriram Nagar here. The Bangalore police had sought our help in this regard and we extended all cooperation. More than one case has been registered against the woman at the Sanjay Nagar Police Station in Bangalore on the basis of a complaint filed by Isro authorities,” Itikanta Mohapatra, the inspector in charge (IIC) of Lingaraj Police Station told reporters.
DCP of North Bangalore S N Siddramappa told Deccan Herald: “Our team arrested Shraddha Shashwathi Mohanty and she is being taken to Bangalore. Our officers are likely to land in Bangalore on Saturday along with the woman. We acted as per an Isro complaint. She was in the city (Bangalore) for a brief period and is allegedly involved in cheating to the tune of a few lakhs,” he said.
The Bangalore police have registered cases against Shraddha under Sections 420 (cheating), 170 (personating a public servant), 468 (forgery), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 426 (mischief) of the IPC (read with Section 66 A of IT Act) after a complaint was filed against her on November 9, 2012.
Shraddha had filed a complaint against an individual on November 6, 2012, alleging that he was falsely using her name for the losses he incurred and had claimed that she was innocent.
She had fooled the police and fled to her hometown after realising that they had booked her for cheating and were about to take up investigation, police sources said.
Govt acts tough
The Karnataka government took the development seriously as Isro was involved in the case and decided to hand it over to the Criminal Investigation Department for further inquiry.
The Bangalore police took it up on a priority basis and collected crucial evidence. They closely monitored her movement and once her role became clear, they alerted their Bhubaneswar counterparts and sought their help in arresting the woman, the sources added.
The woman, a BTech from a private engineering college in Karnataka, had allegedly floated a fake website posing herself as a junior scientist at Isro and invited applications from students for training and subsequent placement in the space agency.
Many students had furnished their applications and deposited money in the bank account as per instructions on the website.
The fraud reportedly came to light last year when the authorities of the colleges of the students contacted Isro. Subsequently, the space agency lodged a complaint in the Sanjay Nagar Police Station last October. Shraddha, reportedly the daughter of a lecturer of a reputed tech college here, was produced before a Bhubaneswar court immediately after her arrest on Thursday.
There was drama at the court of the sub-divisional judicial magistrate when the woman fainted after being produced. A police control room van rushed her to the government-run Capital Hospital.
After the woman was discharged from hospital, she was produced before the court again in the evening.
The Bangalore police team has already left the city taking the woman with them on remand.