Investigation in Picture – 04
The real life’s “naan avan illai” [I am not him]
This article is based on the newspaper and other media reports. Chillzee.in doesn't claim to support or oppose these reported incidents. This article is an effort to share the alleged occurrence of events as per the publicly available reports.
We watch movies and make sarcastic comments about the happenings in the storyline. We say these sort of things never happen in real life.
But sometimes real life is very surprising and astonishing than fiction!
Here’s a sensational case from real life that strongly supports this claim.
The case:
In March 2006, Bitihotra Mohanty alias Bitti Mohanty, the son of former Orissa DGP rank IPS officer Bidya Bhusan was accused of raping a 26-year-old German woman. Mohanty was the woman’s fellow college mate at an institute in Gulmohar Park, New Delhi.
Based on the woman’s complaint, Jaipur police arrested Mohanty from the Alwar railway station on 21st March 2006. He was then produced in a local court the next day. The court remanded him to judicial custody for 15 days.
The German woman complained about receiving threatening calls from Mohanty’s family and lodged a formal complaint about the same in the police station.
Landmark trial & verdict
The trial on this case started on 1st April 2006 after receiving the medical report of the alleged victim.
The fast track court heard the evidence including the testimony of 16 witnesses, which included the staff of the hotel in Alwar where the German student was raped.
The court sentenced Mohanty to seven years rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000.
The Jaipur fast track court set a precedent by convicting Mohanty of rape in just nine days after the trial began.
The speedy process and punishment was much hailed at that time.
The great escape
Mohanty who was locked in Jaipur jail was shifted to Alwar jail allegedly because he was suffering from depression.
In November 2006, Mohanty was granted parole for 15 days to leave the central jail in Jaipur to visit his ailing mother.
RS Chauhan, the then Director General of Prisons had used his discretion and issued parole on November 20 and Mohanty's father had stood surety for his son.
Soon after Mohanty’s father sent applications to extend his son’s parole time to receive treatment for depression and other mental ailments.
The extension application was not accepted but still Mohanty failed to turn up on 4th December 2006, the scheduled end of his parole time.
So police officials went to the address mentioned in the parole application to arrest him but found that he has disappeared.
A court issued a non-bailable warrant to Mohanty's father and charged him with aiding his son in escaping the law.
After trying an absconding act himself and being suspended by the Orissa government, the IPS officer finally surrendered before a Jaipur court after the Orissa High court refused to grant him anticipatory bail.
Mohanty's father claimed that his son had died or must have committed suicide.
"I suspect that he is dead. Otherwise no son could have stayed hiding when his father and his family is going through such an agony," BB Mohanty said.
And then there was no breakthrough in the case. Rajasthan police formed several special teams but there was no step forward in the case.
It looked as if Mohanty has vanished in thin air.
Fast forward seven years:
On 6th March 2013, the General Manager (Human Resources) of State Bank of Travancore (SBT) received an unsigned letter in Hindi and English. It claimed that Raghav Rajan, who was working at the bank’s Chalai branch in Kerala’s Kannur district, had faked his identity to evade jail after being convicted for raping a German woman in Alwar, Rajasthan, in 2006. Attached with the letter were his old photographs and the details of the rape case. A copy was sent to the bank manager as well.
The bank’s HR department had forwarded the letter to the Kerala Director General of Police (DGP), who directed the Kannur Superintendent of Police on 7 March to verify the matter.
Initial background check raised few questions and hence Police took Raghav Rajan in custody and enquired about the letter.
I am not him!!!
Police were convinced that Raghav Rajan is Bitti Mohanty but Rajan adamantly denied that he was Bitti Mohanty.
Though the police tried different tactics, Rajan proved to be a tough nut to crack. During interrogation, he acted cool and behaved as if he had no knowledge about Bitti Mohanty
Rajan also had various documents to prove his identity. He had a voter’s identity card issued by the Revenue Taluk Office of Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh, educational qualifications from secondary level to MBA, accounts in four banks, including SBT, and a passport issued by the Kozhikode regional passport officer. The passport issued on 26 October 2012 identified him as Raghav Rajan with BTech and MBA as educational qualifications.
Rajan’s claim and identity documents created confusion…
So now police have to prove without any doubt that this Raghav Rajan is indeed Bitti Mohanty.