Matrimonial Scam: Man posing as doctor dupes woman of Rs 22.7 lakh

The fraud began in 2021 when the accused allegedly created a fake profile on a matrimonial website by claiming to be Dr Prakash Pradhan, a medical professional.

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According to police, the accused later introduced another fake identity, claiming that his younger brother, Tushar Pradhan, was a Deputy Manager at the State Bank of India (SBI) in Rayagada. Using these false identities, he convinced the woman’s family that the marriage proposal was genuine and that he came from a well-educated family. 

After gaining the family’s confidence, he persuaded the woman's father to transfer money for his investment schemes. Between June and December 2021, the family transferred a total of Rs 22.70 lakh to the accused. 

Soon after receiving the money, the accused stopped responding to calls and messages. This made the family suspicious. After being unable to get their money back, they approached the police and filed a complaint, as per Odisha Bytes Media report. 

During the investigation, the police verified details with the SBI Rayagada branch and the Community Health Centre (CHC) in Manamunda and found that no such persons were working there.

Further financial probes showed that Pradhan had used his father’s bank account to receive the cheated amount and employed multiple identities to execute the deception.

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