The Crime Branch arrested the 8 persons on the basis of investigation into the complaint of Dillip Kumar Jalan, a resident of Bhubaneswar, that he and his wife had become victims of insurance fraud of Rs 76,15,955.

As per the complaint, Dilip’s wife had an HDFC life insurance policy with maturity value of Rs 20 lakh. In July, several unidentified persons contacted him from different mobile phone numbers to upgrade the policy. One such offer was to upgrade the existing policy to Rs 2.75 crore and facilitate an early release.

Convinced by the callers, Dilip deposited Rs 76,15,955 in four separate bank accounts in SBI (2), Kotak Mahindra (1) and Axis Bank (1) between July 5 and September 28 as per their directions.

He deposited Rs 28.73 lakh in SBI account of Pramoda Bali, Rs 8.32 lakh in SBI account of Tej Kumar, Rs 27.54 lakh in Axis Bank account of Kavya Singh and Rs 11.56 lakh in Kotak Mahindra account of Asish Kumar.

A few days back, Sagar called the owner of Sai Electro World in Bhubaneswar and introduced himself as an officer of HDFC Bank. He said the bank had a launched a new scheme to provide air-conditioners at cheap rate. Without checking the background of Sagar, the shop owner placed an order for 20 ACs and made a digital payment of Rs 2 lakh for the purpose.

Following the payment, the shop owner did not get the ACs as ordered by him. When he tried to contact Sagar, the latter avoided him and did not return his money. Realising that he had been duped, the shop owner filed a complaint with cyber police.

The cyber police arrested Sagar after investigating the case. They have seized bank pass books, mobile phone and Rs 1 lakh in cash from his possession. His bank account having Rs 1 lakh has also been frozen.

They claimed that Sagar is a cyber fraud and has several cases against him at Khandagiri, Nayapalli and Chandrasekharpur police stations. He was also arrested in a cyber fraud case last year, they added.

At a meeting of senior officers of CID-CB and officer bearers of the HROA in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday, the ways to prevent and detect of such crimes were explored.

In the meeting, chaired by Arun Bothra, Additional DG of Police, CID-CB, it was revealed that the two recently registered cases of cyber fraud in hotel booking concerning two leading hotels of the state were not isolated incidents. There have been other reported and non-reported cases over a period of time.

With most of the travellers these days booking hotels online, the CID-CB has found that cyber criminals are creating fake websites of hotels in Odisha. They are specially targeting hotels in Puri where tourist flow is maximum. While travelers try to book room, these fake websites lead them to bank accounts of scammers for depositing money. When the tourists reach hotel with fake booking vouchers, they come to know about the scam.

It has been found that in most cases, the tourists leave without lodging a police complaint making it difficult for the police to take appropriate action. In view of growing number of such incidents it was decided to hold a meeting with the stakeholders.

Sh Shefeen Ahmed K, IGP; Sisir Mishra, Additional SP and Inspector Anila Anand attended the meeting. The delegates of HROA comprised JK Mohanty, Chairman, Jouathan Raul- VC, Srinivas Subudhi, working president, Ravi Narayan Sahoo, member, Sujit Ku Mahapatra, treasurer, Somanath Banarjee, member and KK Rao, executive secretary.

During a presentation in the meeting, the IG apprised about different kinds of cyber scams in hotel industry. Hotel owners were requested to collaborate with the police for prompt and better handling of such cases. They were sensitised to bring to the notice of police all the cyber-crimes cases concerning hotel room booking at the earliest for necessary legal action.

It was also decided to appoint nodal officers from both sides for prompt flow of information and swift action on the part of police. CID-CB will organize training session for hotel staff to update them about handling such cases and helping the tourists.