Sambalpur, March 27: The Odisha Police has arrested a 23-year-old man from Faridabad in Haryana for allegedly duping a businessman of Rs 28 lakh on the pretext of supplying face masks, a senior officer said on Friday. A team of police personnel also seized a mobile phone, more than 10 SIM cards, ATM cards of banks and Rs 10 lakh cash from possession of the accused person, he said.

The person created a fake account on a social media platform and posted an advertisement of a Gurgaon-based entity that, he claimed, was associated with the trading of face masks.

He cheated Manoj Kumar Barado, a Sambalpur-based businessman, who placed an order to buy such product, Inspector General of Police, Northern Range, Narasingha Bhol said. Andhra Pradesh: School Teacher Suspended for Drinking Alcohol in Front of Students in Chittoor.

"The businessman had initially deposited Rs 3 lakh in the account of the accused as an advance payment for the contract. The Faridabad-based person prepared a false invoice of a courier company and said he would supply the face masks from a firm in Malaysia through inter-mediatory entities in Oman, Dubai and Muscat," the police officer said.

The Sambalpur-based trader had subsequently transferred Rs 25 lakh to the accused to buy 11,500 face masks but he did not receive any such consignment, the IG said, adding that he could not even trace him over the phone.

A special team was formed to investigate the matter after a complaint was lodged by the businessman in June last year. "The group of police personnel had recently gone to Delhi and camped there for a week. They raided different places in Gaziabad and Faridabad and finally arrested the accused on March 23," Bhol said. The accused has been interrogated for further investigation, he added.

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