Nuapada: Police have arrested three youths on charges of cheating villagers in the district by impersonating themselves as revenue officials and promising help to get homestead land in exchange of few hundred rupees as fees.

The three accused have been identified as Jhasaketan Tandy, 35, Prashanta Tandy, 25, and Jadu Bhue, 24, of Dhinkimunda village in Paikmal police limits of Bargarh district. The police registered a case and remanded the accused in judicial custody after their bail plea was rejected in a Nuapada court on Saturday.

Sources said the trio used to introduce themselves as officials from the revenue department and convince the villagers that they would help them get four decimals of homestead land under the government policy. They would fill up some forms, using the Aadhaar number to impress the villagers and collect Rs 100 to Rs 500 from them as the processing fees. They had been operating at various villages under the Nuapada and Lakhana police limits for the past few days.

Lakhna police station inspector-in-charge Saroj Kumar Mallik said that acting on the villagers' tip-off, they arrested the three fake officers. "They were remanded in judicial custody as their bail was rejected by the court," Mallik said.