Life has turned full circle for Bittihotra Mohanty, known as Bitti, son of former Odisha DG Bidya Bhushan Mohanty. His arrest from Kerala’s Kannur district, where he impersonated as Raghav Raj and worked in State Bank of Travancore as an officer, has brought him back to the prison after he jumped parole following his conviction for raping a German woman in 2006. The long arm of the law finally caught up with him on Friday.
On March 21, 2006, Bitti grabbed national headlines after he was arrested by Rajasthan police from Alwar railway station for allegedly raping a German student a day earlier in a hotel room.
The two had been friends and travelled together. On March 20, 2006 night, Bitti allegedly went into the woman’s room and raped her. The victim had sent a text message to a relative in Germany the next day, who alerted the German embassy in Delhi.
A fast track court in Jaipur began trial on April 1, 2006. In what was one of the fastest delivery of justice, the court finished trial in just 12 days and sentenced Bitti to seven years rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of `10,000. As many 16 witnesses were examined, but the victim was not present.
On November 20, 2006, Bitti was granted parole for 15 days to visit his ailing grandmother. His DG father signed as a guarantor for him. Bitti never returned though. A Rajasthan court then issued a non-bailable warrant against Bitti’s father charging him with aiding his son’s escape. The Odisha DG first dodged the warrant, sought relief from the Orissa High Court before he gave himself up before the court in Rajasthan in 2007.
The 1972 batch IPS officer was suspended by Odisha Government on August 4, 2007 following the issue of non-bailable warrant. He did not even receive the suspension order several times. A newspaper notice too was issued to draw him out.
On May 14, 2009, Mohanty Sr rejoined duty after the Odisha Government revoked the suspension order. But Bitti continued to remain elusive. His father, who retired last year, had even gone on record saying that the rape convict may have been dead.
Ironically, had Bitti served the jail term, he would have been a free man in a couple of months since he was handed out seven-year imprisonment in 2006. But it was not to be.