High-profile fraudster from Odisha arrested in Goa

New Delhi, Sep 19:

A man, who used his knowledge of six foreign languages and a high-profile, to dupe people here on the pretext of exchanging foreign currency has been arrested from Goa, Delhi Police said on Monday.

Snigdha Saurav Dash, 28, a resident of Odisha, was arrested by Delhi Police’s Crime Branch from Panaji on Sunday, police said.

According to police, Dash was fluent in six foreign languages — Russain, Spanish, Italian, Thai, Hebrew and Portuguese — and has visited over 70 countries.

He was arrested following a case filed against him by Sanjay Dutt Sharma on September 5, alleging that Dash fled away with $5,000 of his on the pretext of getting it checked.

Explaining the modus operandi of the accused, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Yadav said: “Dash used to rent a premises in any of the commercial complexes in the national capital on hourly basis. And after duping his customers he would run away with the foreign currency leaving them waiting in the hourly-rented cabin.”

Dash also holds a degree of engineering and has post graduate degree from IMT Ghaziabad.

Yadav also said that the accused has started duping the people after meeting D.I. Maitrey, a Russian national in a bar in central Delhi’s Connaught Place area in 2015, who was also involved in duping people on the pretext of exchanging foreign currencies.

“During interrogation he confessed that he, along with Maitrey, had cheated a resident of Janakpuri in 2015 of $5,000. And ealier this month he cheated Dutt of $5,000,” he said.

“After duping Dutt, he went to Russia and spent five days with Maitrey,” the officer added.

Police has recovered $3,000 out of $10,000 which he had duped.

“Dash also claimed that he was working with the BRICS as Marketing Head Associates which is yet to be confirmed,” the officer said, adding: “He has earlier also worked with National Geographic Channel as System Analyst.” (IANS)