BHUBANESWAR/KENDRAPARA : The Special Task Force (STF) of Crime Branch on Friday questioned gangster Sheik Usman Ali alias Tito’s wife Benazir Bibi at their residence at Dilarpur locality in Kendrapara in connection with the movable and immovable property registered in her name despite having no income of her own.The agency’s officers stated that though Benazir was a housewife with no income, firms such as Benazir Infrastructure Private limited, several petrol pumps and deposits were registered in her name. Besides, luxury SUV Audi Q7 was also registered in Benazir’s name.
“Benazir was questioned at her residence in Kendrapara by an STF team consisting of a DSP and two lady sub-inspectors about her financial status and the movable and immovable property registered in her name,” an STF officer said. Besides questioning Tito’s wife, the agency’s sleuths also interrogated the gangster’s two associates, Sanjay Rout and Hizbul Rehman.Rout and Rehman were summoned by STF and they deposed before the agency’s officers on Friday in connection with the crime network of the gangster and his associates. Sources said the STF officers also questioned the officials of Civil Supply Office for giving no-objection certificate (NOC) to Tito and his wife to operate a petrol pump in Kendrapara.
During the investigation, it was found that a rice trader of Ichhapur allegedly approached the Civil Supply officials for helping the gangster start a petrol pump in Kendrapara, the sources added. The rice trader has been absconding after Tito’s arrest and the STF officers have launched a search to nab him.
The agency has registered a case against Tito for acquiring property illegally, his involvement in tender fixing, demanding extortion and robbery. The STF officers have sealed a petrol pump and Benazir Infrastructure’s office.Similarly, the agency has registered another case against Tito and his associates for threatening a contractor at gun-point while demanding `70 lakh extortion towards ` 7 crore project he had undertaken at Aul, Pattamundai irrigation division.
The STF has registered a third case against the gangster and his associates for forcibly occupying a land measuring 36-guntha in Kendrapara.After the completion of Tito’s four-day remand, he was produced in a court in Kendrapara on Friday. The STF officers prayed for taking the gangster on fresh five-day remand, but the court allowed the agency to take him on three-day remand.