Baripada, Mar 21: At least three persons were arrested on charges of impersonating as senior IAS officers and duping as many as 15 government job aspirants of over Rs 20 lakh in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district.
The arrestees have been identified as Manoj Acharya, an assistant teacher at Bairatpur School in Udala, Dilip Jena, an engineer, and Lohitash Jena, a resident of Kalikapur in Baripada.
According to the police, the victims were desperate for jobs and were tricked by the three accused. They claimed they knew a senior IAS officer and could get them government jobs in exchange for a large amount of money.
The scam was exposed when an Assistant Block Education Officer (ABEO), identified as Brundaban Marandi, filed a complaint against Acharya wherein he accused him of taking Rs 1.30 lakh from his nephew, promising him a job.
Later, Acharya demanded another Rs 40,000, claiming the job was secured. But when the job never happened and Acharya refused to return the money, Marandi reported him to Khunta police.
Based on the complaint, police swung into action and made the arrests.
Further investigation into the matter was underway.
