KANNUR, KERALA, Mar 9: Nearly seven years after he jumped bail while serving sentence for raping a German national in Rajasthan, Bitti Mohanty, the absconding son of former Odisha DGP BB Mohanty, was today taken into custody by Kerala Police.
Mohanty was working as a Probationary Officer in a public sector bank here by impersonating as a person from Andhra Pradesh. He was picked up by police last night from Pazhayangadi near here.
Police sources said they had been in touch with their counterparts in Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, and from interactions with them they were almost sure that the person under custody was none other than Bitti.
Kannur SP Rahul R Nair told that Rajasthan Police have been asked to come to Kannur and confirm his identity as he was sentenced to seven years imprisonment in 2006 for raping the 26-year-old German woman at Alwar.
For the time being the person had been charged with cheating, impersonation and forgery and would be produced before a local court after completing the arrest proceedings before being handed over to Rajasthan police, Nair said.
Police were tipped off about the presence of Bitti here after an anonymous letter was received by the bank branch authorities expressing suspicion that the man claiming to be from Andhra Pradesh could be Bitti.
After jumping bail in 2006, Bitti obtained an MBA degree and managed to get into the bank as a probationary officer.
What exposed Bitti was that his photo was among the pictures of accused in various sex crimes shown by television channels and floated on the Internet in the wake of the Delhi gangrape incident, sources said.
Kerala Home Minister T Radhakrishnan said, “Yes, we got convincing evidence that he is a convict in the case…. We are looking at the merits of the case. We will proceed against him. We are in the right path of investigation in the case”.
Ranjit Thomas, PRO, State Bank of Travancore where Bitti was working said, “I am sorry we are not able to identify as such, he was recruited in the bank last year through the process and on the basis of the anonymous letter, we had suspicion over the identity of the person so we handed over an official complaint to the DGP Thiruvananthapuram”.
In 2006, a fast-track court in Alwar had taken just 15 days from the date of the complaint being filed, to convict him and sentence him to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment.
Bitti was allowed to leave prison on parole after seven months on the plea that his mother was unwell and wanted to meet him. However, he went missing.
Bitti’s father BB Mohanty had stood surety for his son’s return to prison in 15 days. He was suspended for allegedly helping his son jump parole, only to be reinstated by the Odisha government in May 2009. (PTI)
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