By IANS
Cuttack, Senior police officer B.B. Mohanty, accused of shielding his absconding rape-convict son Bitti, continued to evade a special Rajasthan police team here for the second consecutive day Tuesday as he was said to be on sick leave.
The four-member team, who arrived in Cuttack Monday to arrest Mohanty, said he was neither in his office, home or at the hospital he was supposed to be in.
The team was told by police officials here that Mohanty, a director general of police (fire service and home guards) was on medical leave for five days beginning Monday.
“In the leave application, Mohanty says he will undergo treatment in Sriram Chandra Bhanja (SCB) Medical College here because he is suffering from blood dysentery,” Deputy Superintendent of Police Mukund Bihary, part of the Rajasthan team, told IANS.
“We then went to SCB Medical College but the medical superintendent told us that Mohanty was not being treated there. We also verified hospital records and his name was not in them either,” Bihary added.
The official said they had gone to Mohanty’s house Monday and Tuesday but family members claim they don’t know about his whereabouts. The policemen went to Mohanty’s office for a second time too, but to no avail.
“We plan to meet senior police officials of Orissa and the state home secretary for further help,” Bihary said.
On May 24, a Jaipur court rejected the Rajasthan government’s plea for a non-bailable warrant against Mohanty. The court said the police should arrest him in the normal course.
Bitti was convicted of raping a 26-year-old German tourist in Alwar in March 2006. An Alwar court sentenced him to seven years in jail. On Nov 20, 2006, He was allowed a 15-day parole to meet his ailing mother but he jumped parole and has not returned.
The Rajasthan police after a probe into the incident filed a case against the convict’s father for allegedly helping and abetting his son escape and harbouring him since then.