Bhubaneswar, Aug 5 (IANS) The Berhampur Police on Tuesday arrested a fraudster for duping one businessman of more than Rs 6 crores on the pretext of investment in programmes under the Mission Shakti department.

The accused was identified as Anil Kumar Mishra (35) of Digipada village under the Kodala police station area of Ganjam district. The victim, Anurag Mishra, came into contact with the accused, Anil, through a mutual friend a few years ago.

Anil later persuaded Anurag to invest money in projects related to the supply of various goods to blocks and Women’s Self-Help Groups under the state government’s Mission Shakti department.

To gain the victim’s trust, Anil initially offered good returns for investment made by Anurag.

“On April 29, 2024, the complainant invested Rs 2,00,000 by transferring the amount from his account. Immediately, Rs. 2,26,000 was credited to the said current account of complainant Anurag through three different transactions, which led him to trust the scheme and integrity of accused Anil,” said a senior police official.

Subsequently, Anurag continued to invest large sums of money into various bank accounts provided by the accused.

The Police sources further informed that relying on such initial success and after building good faith, he went on investing and in this way, a total amount of Rs 9,71,55,073 was invested by the complainant through Bank transactions alone from his ICICI bank accounts on different dates during the period from May 2024 till April 11, 2025, through bank transactions.

Though till April 2025, Anurag received around Rs 3 crores as “returns” from the accused person, but the victim did not receive any money from the complainant after April 11, 2025.

Anurag eventually understood that he had fallen victim to fraud and reported to the Cyber Crime & Economic Offence Police Station, Berhampur.

“During, investigation, it was found that the accused was simply investing the money in different trading apps and giving some of his profit money as returns to Anurag. But he later started losing money and couldn’t return any more. Investigation is going on to verify the facts mentioned in the accused’s statement,” added the senior cop.

–IANS

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