Kannur:
When the Kerala police arrested a man called Raghav Rajan in Kannur last night, they solved two crimes committed in two states hundreds of kilometres apart. Police sources say Rajan has confessed to actually being Bitti Mohanty, who was convicted by a Rajasthan court for the rape of a German national six years ago and had jumped parole and gone missing. He has now been sent to 14 days in judicial custody.
Bitti Mohanty, the son of a former top cop in Odisha, was convicted in March 2006 for raping a 26-year-old German national in a hotel in Alwar, Rajasthan. On November 20, after spending seven months in jail, he was allowed to leave prison on parole on the plea that his mother in Odisha was unwell and wanted to meet him. He had been missing ever since.
Last night, the police arrested the man who called himself Rajan on charges of impersonation. They were asked to investigate him by his employer, the State Bank of Travancore, after the bank received an anonymous tip-off.
He had been living in Kerala for the last three and a half years, had a fake passport, a driver's licence and even a college degree certificate in the name of Raghav Rajan, police sources said. He had been working at the bank for two years now, after acquiring an MBA degree from Kannur.
The police - as they stitch together Mohanty's story in the last six years - say after he gave the the cops the slip in 2006, he fled to Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh. He was in that state for three years, but constantly changed town.
His father BB Mohanty, an Indian Police Service officer who was then Director General Home Guards and Fire Services, stood surety for his son's return to prison in 15 days. When Bitti jumped parole, Mr Mohanty was accused of helping his son escape.