Duping Professionals with Fake Offers: Accused posed as doctor, engineer, professor to lure victims with promises of high-paying jobs abroad
PRAVASISAMWAD.COM
Odisha Police on Wednesday arrested Bishnu Prasad Pattnaik alias Biranchi Narayan, a non-resident Indian (NRI) fraudster, for duping highly qualified individuals out of lakhs of rupees under the guise of securing them overseas employment. The Crime Branch revealed that Pattnaik, originally from Begunia in Khordha district, used fake credentials and forged documents to carry out a long-running job fraud operation, reported deshsewak.org.
The accused swindled victims by impersonating a doctor, engineer, or professor and producing forged appointment letters for jobs at top international firms and airlines.
According to Odisha Crime Branch DGP Vinaytosh Mishra, Pattnaik conned an aeronautical engineer from Gunupur of ₹90 lakh by promising him a job first with British Airways, then Lufthansa. He presented forged appointment and offer letters to support the scam. A case was registered in 2018 at the Gunupur police station, later taken over by the Crime Branch.
In another complaint filed the same year, Pattnaik allegedly defrauded a woman of ₹15 lakh by offering a fake overseas job to her son, an electronics and instrumentation engineer.
During investigation, police also linked Pattnaik to a separate fraud case registered at Bissamcuttack police station in 2002, for which he was shown as absconding in the charge sheet
The conman fled to Cambodia in 2012, created a second passport, and continued to evade authorities despite a Look Out Circular issued in 2019.
The Crime Branch disclosed that Pattnaik had been using forged documents, including address proof and driving licenses, to conceal his identity. He also falsely claimed to have set up an IT firm in Cambodia, which is now under investigation. Despite the alert, he reportedly returned to Odisha multiple times, including in 2023.
His latest visit to India in May 2025 was closely monitored. Using tech-based surveillance, Odisha Police tracked him down and arrested him in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday.
“We will now approach the court to seek his remand for further interrogation and to unearth the full extent of his network and fraudulent activities,” said the DGP.
