Kendrapara: The Special Task Force (STF) of Bhubaneswar Friday produced Tito alias Sayed Ushman Ali in the JMFC court of Rajnagar after four days of remand. The JMFC remanded Tito to custody again at the Kendrapara sub-jail.
DSP of STF, Priya Ranjan Satapathy, requested the JMFC court July 25 for seven days custody of Tito for questioning, but the JMFC granted only four days from July 30 to August 3.
Premanand Lenka of Rajnagar had filed a complaint with STF against Tito and his associates for threatening him with a pistol to extort Rs 70 lakh. Lenka was executing a contract in Aul, for the Patamundai irrigation division for Rs 7 crore. The STF had registered a case regarding this.
The STF also produced the arrested Machhu alias Sheikh Ashadul Quadir, of Imambada village for alleged links with Tito and his cousin Babloo alias Sayed Iman Ali who is also involved in an STF case.
Rajnagar JMFC rejected the bail petition of Machhu and remanded him to custody.
With the arrest of Machhu, the STF has arrested six persons including Tito, in STF case No: 9.
During the interrogation of Tito and Machhu, the STF managed to get several clues and the names of government officials and contractors who had links with Tito, official sources said.
In another development, Kendrapara SDPO, Rajib Lochan Panda, requested the SDJM court of Kendrapara for Tito’s custody in Town PS case No: 139 dated 21.12.17.
Town police earlier reopened a case against Tito as they got clues about his involvement the murder of Bhubaneswar-based Gupta Power Infrastructure Limited (GPIL) site manager, Debashis Sahoo. Tito and his associates had allegedly killed Sahoo December 21, 2017, at the Chakoda transformer sub-station installation site as GPIL did not heed his extortion demand.
Vigilance sleuths of Kendrapara led by DSP Surendranath Raiguru Friday visited the SBI main branch for collecting documents on Tito and his relatives.
Several police and government officials are now under the Vigilance scanner for involvement with Tito’s gang. Very soon the officials’ houses are going to be raided and they would be arrested as Vigilance has got the list of officials from STF.
Meanwhile, there are allegations that the STF and Vigilance are not arresting real criminals who were active members of Tito’s gang and not probing senior officials who were the main culprits in making Tito a millionaire and are instead hounding lower rank officials.
PNN