Malay Sukumar Bhowmick (55) and Ujjwal Biswas (33), both residents of Kolkata were arrested from airport yesterday.
While Bhowmick posed as Additional Secretary to Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Biswas posed as Bhowmik's PA, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Yadav said.
According to the police, the duo had allegedly targeted a Delhi-based businessman on the pretext of a tender and made him pay Rs 80,000 as tender fees. Later, they took another installment of equal amount for releasing 50 percent of the tender cost.
During interrogation, it emerged that Bhowmick had a science diploma from a reputed institute and had worked as electrical contractor in several departments before.
He knew the CM's additional secretary and allegedly took advantage of that by targeting people, pretending to be him, mostly through business-to-business websites, Yadav added.