Odisha CID arrests two for Rs 1.56 crore online gaming fraud

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Odisha police on Thursday arrested two fraudsters on the charge of defrauding a woman in Odisha’s Cuttack district of Rs 1.56 crore crore on the pretext of higher returns in online gaming platforms.

The CID sleuths acted on a complaint filed by Mamata Rout (38), a native of Balisahi village under the Salipur police station the jurisdiction of Cuttack alleging that she was cheated of Rs 1.56 crore by the accused for willful adoption of deceitful means and promise of high return on investment in different online gaming platforms world.net, bounty game in, bitcoin staking opportunity, ride BNB, HAHM in between Feb- 2024 to Feb-2025.

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Preliminary investigation revealed that the accused, Kamadev Rout, Bikram Kumar Jethi, and their associates, had assured the victim of high value return on investment and lured her to transfer Rs. 57,39,471 to 10 different bank accounts furnished by accused persons. Besides cash, Rs. 98,60,529 was also transferred by the victim to the accused persons on different dates, informed CID officials.

On due analysis of financial transaction of the victim and that of the accused persons it was found that a sum of Rs 14,77,000 and Rs 8,45,046 has been transferred to the account  of accused Kamadev Rout and Bikram Kumar Jethi respectively during the reported period from the account of the complainant and her friend Kshirendra Kumar Sahoo.

The accused persons, Kamadev Rout, and Bikram Kumar Jethi, with an intention to further extract money from the victim contacted her over phone and came down to Cuttack on 16 and 17 July and were apprehended by the team of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Crime Branch.

Electronic gadgets including mobile phones of the accused persons were seized and preliminary investigation further reveals that the accused persons have purchased several immovable properties including land, vehicle and gold ornament at Bhubaneswar and Jharkhand.

The accused are being forwarded to the designated Court in Cuttack under Odisha Protection of Interests of Depositors (OPID) Act. Further investigation is in process to trace out the links of accused persons and to find out their investment in this case, they concluded.