Bhubaneswar, Sept. 15: Police commissioner Y.B. Khurania today ordered a probe into the alleged nexus between five inspector rank officers and a fraudster, who was recently arrested by Laxmisagar police on charges of cheating a businessman of Rs 5 lakh.

The accused, identified as Pravat Kumar Muduli, 38, has shared his picture with the five inspectors on a social networking website.

A decision was taken to conduct a probe after a group of businessmen alleged that one of the five inspectors was putting pressure on the police not to lodge a complaint against Muduli.

The businessmen today held a demonstration outside the police commissioner's office here.

The five inspectors who have come under the scanner are working with the Cuttack urban police district of the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack police.

They are Biswajit Mohanty (Cantonment police station), Bimal Kumar Barik (Markat Nagar police station), D.P. Patro (Malgodown police station), Sunil Kumar Mohanty (Traffic police station) and Ranjit Prusty (District Crime Records Bureau).

"A probe will be conducted to ascertain the circumstances under which the police officials took the picture with the accused. We will also investigate whether any of the officials have any nexus with the accused. Strong action will be taken if anyone is found guilty," said Khurania.

On August 15, Khandagiri police arrested Pramod Dora, a close associate of Muduli, on charges of a Rs 12-lakh fraud.

He had taken the money for giving the victim ownership of a carrying-and-forwarding agency of a Bhopal-based beverage company.

On September 11, Laxmisagar police arrested Muduli.

It has been alleged that Dora, Muduli and his three associates had employed similar modus operandi to dupe several city businessmen to the tune of Rs 1 crore.

"Their trick was to approach a businessmen and promise him an agency. Later, they asked the businessmen to deposit the money in a bank account. Once the trader had deposited the money, they withdrew the money and disappeared," said a police official.

The duped businessmen today demonstrated in front of the office of the police commissioner alleging Muduli of being in a nexus with one of the inspectors Bimal Barik. The agitators also accused Barik of providing protection to Muduli.

"It was Barik who put pressure on several police stations whenever any complaint was registered against Muduli and his associates. Muduli had posted several photographs with Barik, which proves that he had a close link with the police officer," said Bhikari Sahu, a victim of the fraudsters.