By IANS
Bhubaneswar : The Orissa government Saturday formed six police teams to arrest Bidya Bhusan Mohanty, a suspended top state police official for allegedly sheltering his absconding son, who had been jailed after being convicted of rape.
“We raided more than a dozen places including his home, office, houses of his relatives, railway stations and airport both on Friday and Saturday. So far we could not locate him,” Cuttack district police chief Soumendra Priyadarshi told IANS.
Priyadarshi is leading the teams that have been formed to arrest Mohanty after a non-bailable warrant was issued against him and his son.
The Orissa government Friday suspended Mohanty, the director general of police (home guards) hours after a Rajasthan police official formally requested the government to arrest him and his son Bitti Hotra Mohanty.
A police official from Rajasthan handed over non-bailable arrest warrants in the names of Mohanty and his son to Cuttack district collector Sujata Rout Friday morning.
Bitti was sentenced to a seven-year jail term last year for raping a German tourist in Alwar, Rajasthan. He jumped parole in November.
A case was registered against senior Mohanty in Rajasthan for allegedly sheltering his son and concealing facts about him.
On June 8, a lower court in Rajasthan issued a bailable warrant against Bitti and an arrest warrant against his father. It gave police time till July 7 to carry out the orders.
Mohanty had filed a petition in a Jaipur court seeking to convert a non-bailable warrant against him into a bailable one. The court had rejected the petition Monday.
Mohanty was the senior-most police officer in the state. He is one year senior to the present director general of police Amarananda Patnaik.