By IANS
Jaipur : While the Rajasthan Police battled scandal with a British journalist alleging rape in the lake town of Udaipur, there was finally forward movement in the rape of another tourist. More than a year after his convicted son jumped parole, elusive senior Orissa cop B.B. Mohanty Thursday surrendered and was sent to jail.
The fugitive officer, who was suspended as director general of police (home guard and fire service) by the Orissa government and was wanted by the Rajasthan Police for his alleged role in helping son Bitti Hotra Mohanty jump parole in November 2006, was remanded to 14 days judicial custody.
Mohanty had surrendered before the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Rajendra Kumar Bansal in the morning.
Bitti Mohanty 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. He was allowed a 15-day parole to meet his ailing mother Nov 20, 2006 but he did not return to jail.
The Rajasthan Police had filed a case against B.B. Mohanty for allegedly helping and abetting his son to escape from judicial custody and harbouring him since then.
Mohanty had allegedly signed a surety bond worth Rs.50,000 to take Bitti on parole. He has, however, so far refused that he had done so and also denied any knowledge of his son’s whereabouts.
He has been charged with criminal conspiracy, obstruction to the lawful apprehension of another person and harbouring an offender who has escaped from custody. If found guilty, Mohanty faces jail term of a year-and-a-half to life imprisonment.
On Nov 15, the court had declared the senior Orissa cop an absconder and issued standing warrants against him under which he could be arrested at any time and at any place.
His arrest comes a day after a guesthouse owner in Udaipur was arrested on charges of raping a British journalist while an American tourist complained that she had been molested in a temple in holy town of Pushkar.
“The 40-year-old journalist did not inform us earlier of the incident. We came to know about it through the British High Commission. She had sent an email to the high commission alleging she was raped during a night when she asked for an extra blanket from the guesthouse staff,” a police officer said.
Last year, a Japanese tourist complained that she was duped by a group of men in Pushkar, drugged at a hotel and raped.
For a city that prides itself on its tourist potential, these reports are damaging to say the least.