Rajasthan Police may have to wait to get Bitti Mohanty

Rajasthan Police may have to wait to take custody of rapist Bitti Mohanty as he is in judicial custody and Kerala Police want to question him, police said Sunday.

Kerala's Additional Director General of Police N Shankar Reddy told IANS that they have sought police custody of Bitti Mohanty from the court which remanded him to 14 days' judicial custody Saturday.

"Bitti Mohanty's crime in Kerala is that he used forged documents. He studied in a college here and then got a job in the State Bank of Travancore as a probationary officer using the alias Raghav Raj from Andhra Pradesh. Rajasthan Police can take him only after we complete our investigation. This would be decided by the court here," Reddy said.

Kerala Police confirmed Bitti Mohanty's arrest Saturday.

He is the son of BB Mohanty, a former director general of police in Odisha. Bitti Mohanty was sentenced to seven years imprisonment in 2006 for raping a 26-year-old German woman in Alwar. He jumped parole the same year and had been on the run ever since.

BB Mohanty was accused of aiding his son's escape and was suspended but later reinstated. He retired in 2012.

Sub-inspector M Anil, who arrested Mohanty in Kannur in Kerala, said that initially he denied he was Bitti Mohanty but later accepted his true identity.

"Our job is to investigate how he got documents and certificates in the name of Raghav Raj. For that, once we get his custody, we will go to Rajasthan, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. Our first job is to find out if there is anyone called Raghav Raj and if he is alive," Anil said.

Bitti Mohanty was picked up by police based on a complaint from the head office of State Bank of Travancore, which asked them to confirm his identity.

He showed police his passport and an electoral identity card in the name of Raghav Raj.

For the past seven months, Bitti Mohanty had been working as a probationary officer with the bank. Earlier this week, bank officials approached police to ascertain his real identity after they received an anonymous letter saying he was Bitti Mohanty.