Minor nabbed for extortion through fake VIP FB accounts

The police in Sambalpur town in western Odisha Sambalpur district nabbed a class eight student on a charge of creating fake Facebook accounts in name of certain VIPs and other influential persons and extorting money and gifts in their name from common citizens. “The boy has been arrested and further investigation into the case is on”, said Sanjeev Arora, the Superintendent of Police(SP), Sambalpur.

The cops investigating into the interesting case said the minor’s modus operandi was simple. He would first open fake Facebook(FB) accounts in the name of some important personalities within the state, particularly from western Odisha. Then would send friend requests to individuals. After getting friendly with them, he would ask his victims to send money to his bank account for certain purposes or send him gifts like mobile phones. Preliminary police investigation revealed that in some cases the boy had been successful in collecting money and gifts from certain individuals.

The important personalities in whose name the boy had opened fake FB accounts included state health minister Naba Kishore Das and two sitting senior legislators, former minister and BJP MLA from Sambalpur, Jai Narayan Mishra and former minister and Congress MLA from neighbouring Bolangir, Narasingha Mishra. Both the Mishras and minister Das are known as political heavyweights from western Odisha. “Law would take its own course”, the three senior politicos have said.

The minor boy is alleged to have open a fake FB account in the name of Sambalpur Collector, Subham Saxena too. “It appears he had managed to open nearly a hundred fake Facebook accounts. We are probing if his operations had gone beyond western Odisha”, said an investigator.

However, this was not for the first time the boy had been caught cheating people. If police sources are to be believed, the minor was arrested once before along with his father for extorting more than Rupees two lakh from a man in Sambalpur town assuring him a petrol pump allotment. He was produced in a juvenile court and was later granted bail.