Web portal journalist on remand for 3 days
Bhubaneswar: Journalist Surjit Kumar Dhall, who was arrested on the basis of fraud charges, has been sent on three-day remand of Odisha Crime Branch EOW. The remand period will start from tomorrow i.e. Monday. EOW had sought remand of the journalist for 5 days, but the court gave remand of only three days. He will be interrogated during the three-day remand period from Monday to Wednesday.
Builder Kalinga Keshari Rath has leveled fraud allegations against Surjit Kumar Dhall, who owns a local web news portal and a newspaper. According to the allegations, the journalist has defrauded the businessman of Rs 1 crore by using forged documents and extorting/frauding money by posing as an influential person with big contacts.
Apart from this, he had also cheated two luxury Mercedes and Audi cars from Keshari Rath. Even though he took the money and the car, he did not complete any of the promised work. So, he asked her to return the money and the car. Although the journalist returned the cars, he refused to return the money. Besides this, she also threatened to use her influence to jeopardize Rath’s business if he continued asking her to return the money, the charge report said. In such a situation, he finally sought help from EOW. Based on the allegation, EOW arrested Surjeet Kumar Dhall on Saturday.