An Assam government official hired mimicry artists to imitate the voices of chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and the state’s top bureaucrats to cheat over a hundred businessmen across states in a jobs-and-contracts racket, police said on Thursday.
Investigators suspect the racket had been operating for nearly a decade. Police did not share details of the mimics who helped Bora commit the fraud, saying they were questioning him to find out more about them. Borthakur offered to pay via demand draft, but Bora insisted on an online transfer. A suspicious Borthakur abandoned the project and demanded a refund. When Bora refused, the businessman approached the police. the list includes residents from other states While most depositors were from Assam. Police are now summoning the account owners for face-to-face cross-examinations with Bora to verify their claims. He is currently in four-day police custody.
Bora was arrested from his official residence on September 7. During simultaneous raids at Bora’s office and residences in Dhemaji and Guwahati, the Vigilance Cell recovered nine mobile phones, 18 SIM cards and a cache of incriminating documents. The racket unravelled when Bora demanded an additional ₹ 40 lakh. The transaction amounts ranged from ₹ 5 lakh to nearly a crore.
Bora first set up appointments with businessmen and then, to build trust, he would dial “senior officials” sitting directly in front of his victims. From the other end, a mimicry artist or a team member would reply, impersonating the CM, chief secretary Ravi Kota, or other cabinet ministers, promising lucrative government contracts, said police.
Bora, who previously served as a joint secretary in the medical education and research department, was produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate in Dhemaji and brought to Guwahati on transit remand.
A second account tied to another Arunachal firm, DB Enterprise, was also discovered.
“After district-level investigation based on this first clue, we took up the case,” said Rosie Kalita, senior superintendent of police (SSP), Assam CID. She said that police traced the “government bank account” to KK Enterprise, an Arunachal Pradesh-based business group.
