An Odisha couple has been arrested for cheating dozens of people, including politicians and filmmakers, and extorting money from them by threatening them with their nude photos and videos.
Archana Nag and her husband Jagabandhu Chand have cheated dozens of people.
By Mohammad Suffian: An Odisha couple has been arrested for defrauding dozens of people, including politicians and filmmakers, and extorting money from them by threatening them with their nude photos and videos.
THE MARRIED COUPLE
The couple’s story is similar to Bunty Aur Babli, a film that shows two small-town misfits with eyes full of dreams and the hope of growing up in the city of dreams, Mumbai. However, they soon turn to a life of fraud and become an infamous duo known as Bunty and Babli. What sets the duos apart is the fact that the real-life ‘Bunty-Babli’ couple from Odisha turned to a sleaze racket to make a quick buck and become famous.
Archana Nag, a 26-year-old woman from Odisha’s Bolangir, reached Bhubaneswar in 2015 and was admitted to an Integrated Law course. It is not clear whether she has completed her law degree or not.
Archana started working at a private security company. But within a few months, she left that job and started a beauty salon.
In 2017, she met 33-year-old Jagabandhu Chand, another ambitious boy from the Balasore district of Odisha, and married him the next year.
Before meeting Archana, Jagabandhu had a grocery store in his native village in Balasore district. After reaching Bhubaneswar, he got involved in buying and selling cars. After meeting Archana, they both got to work honey-catching big wigs and extorting money from them.
THE MODE OPEANDIA
Chand always introduced himself as a member of a prominent political party to his potential victims, including wealthy businessmen, government ministers, MLAs, and even filmmakers.
The couple invited their victims to their palatial home in the middle of Bhubaneswar for food and drink. After developing a good bond with their victim, they would entrap them.
The couple recorded intimate videos of their victims on spy cameras strategically located in their bedroom and later blackmailed them into paying them money. They threatened the victim with serious consequences, including filing a police case.
THE CRACKDOWN
In an unexpected turn of events, things took an ugly turn for the couple after Archana tricked a famous filmmaker Akshay Parija, claiming that a girl she hired was the victim of the bank’s casting and that the director was to blame. Archana demanded Rs 3 crore from the filmmaker not to register a case and threatened him with dire consequences if her demands were not met.
Parija filed a complaint at Nayapalli Police Station, alleging that Archana, who identified herself as a lawyer, was blackmailing him into saying she had obscene videos of him with her client. “Archana made a deal with me and demanded Rs 3 crore. She threatened to kill me by cutting me to pieces if I didn’t comply with her demand,” Parija said.
Speaking to India Today, Deputy Police Commissioner Pratik Singh said a woman had filed a complaint against Archana Nag at Khandagiri Police Station.
In her complaint, the woman alleged that the couple invited her to a party with them in 2019 and offered her food, which was allegedly spiked with drugs. When the woman regained consciousness, she found no clothing on her body and later learned that the couple had taken her nude photos and videos.
The woman claimed that Archana threatened her with her nude photos and asked her to be intimate with Parija and blackmail him.
Police took note of Parija’s complaint and arrested the couple two days ago from their palatial home in Bhubaneswar.
POLITICAL PARTIES RESPOND
Speaking to India Today, Smruti Patnaik, president of the Mahila wing of the BJP, said: “A village girl comes to the capital of Odisha for work and in the space of five years she becomes so rich that she builds a palatial house for herself, BMW, Ford and Audi drive. Cars. What was she doing?”
“We found out that the house she lived in had been turned into ‘Rang Mahal’, where government officials, MLAs, and senior railway officials often visited. All the seniors are involved in this scam,” said Patnaik, who raised her claim for a CBI. probe insisted. .
Patnaik claimed that the police had done nothing, saying: “A complaint has been lodged against this woman since 2020, but the police have never taken any action… The police have confiscated her pen drives, laptop, electronic gadgets and mobile phone. taken for the purpose of erasing evidence and concealing facts.”
Congressional MLA Santosh Singh Saluja reiterated similar views. “Some prominent leaders of the ruling party are involved in unpleasant activities. In a sense, they have promoted the meat trade in Odisha. In addition, several senior government officials are directly or indirectly involved in the case. Illegal assets collected by Archana could be caught, the truth must come out, and offenders must be severely punished.”
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