CID arrests serial cheater from Vizag

Kolkata: The state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) arrested a serial cheater from Vizag in connection with a case lodged with Pradhan Nagar police station in Siliguri. The accused, identified as Soumen Mukherjee, alias Aryan Dev, would represent himself as a reporter of a major media house and would indulge in this unlawful practice.

The CID took up the investigation on the basis of a compliant of cheating of Rs 2.73 lakh by a bus owner — Prabir Kumar Dutta of Pradhan Nagar in Siliguri who had alleged that the accused, a resident of Asansol, had posed as a scribe of a leading media house and took money from him with the promise of some favour. The complaint was lodged on January 21 and the CID took over the probe on February 28 after the local police station failed to make any significant breakthrough.

It is learnt that the accused is also wanted in a case at Suryanagar in Bengaluru where he had cheated a person from Hooghly's Sreerampore area. The complainant, Debasish Mukherjee, was cheated to the tune of Rs 16 lakh. Mukherjee had visited a private hospital there for the treatment of his 4-year-old child suffering from thalassemia and was waiting for bone marrow transplant. The accused had also posed as a scribe of another leading media house there during the act that happened in January which hampered the treatment of the victim's child.

"He is also believed to be involved in duping several job aspirants and small businessmen," Deputy Inspector General (DIG), CID (Operations) Nishat Parvez said.

He was produced before the concerned magistrate in Vizag on Friday and will be brought to the state on transit remand.