Cellphone fad turns conning tool for this Odisha mechanical engineer

BHUBANESWAR: International karate player Valena Valentina’s family fell victim to a mechanical engineer’s penchant to con people for their obsession over new mobile phones.

The fraudster, Suryakanta Tripathy, was finally trapped by the police on Monday.

Valentina’s father was introduced to the mechanical engineer three years back by his friend. “Tripathy had taken loans in small amounts from my father citing financial problems. Later, when we calculated, the entire amount stood at Rs three lakh,” Valentina said. 

When her father asked him to return the money, he gave them an iPhone 11 saying he has opened a mobile phone store. “He said the phone’s cost is over Rs 60,000 but he would give it to us for Rs 50,000. We deposited the amount and he handed over the device to us but did not give its barcode even after repeated attempts,” she added.

Tripathy not only conned Valentina’s father, but many businessmen in the city also fell to his tricks. He had introduced himself as project director of DRDA, Jajpur to a businessman, Nikunj Khemani, on November 19 and purchased five handsets including four iPhone 11 from him.

However, he did not pay. He also cheated two other businessmen in similar fashion. The three businessmen lodged complaints with Saheed Nagar police.

Following an investigation, Special Squad and Saheed Nagar police nabbed Tripathy who revealed to the police about the stolen mobile phones and where he had disposed of the devices.

“Apart from Khemani’s electronic items, we recovered six laptops, three expensive mobile phones and other devices worth Rs 6 lakh from him. Three cases have been registered in this regard,” a police officer said. Further investigation is on to ascertain whether Tripathy has cheated others and whether he has any associates, who were involved in the crimes, he added.