KENDRAPARA: Notorious criminal Syed Imran Ali alias Sappo (40) was arrested from his office at Dilarapur under Kendrapara town limits on charges of fixing tenders in connivance with contractors and officials. Sappo is the younger brother of gangster Usman Ali alias Tito and was the rival of Dhal Samanta brothers.
A CCTV has been seized from his office and the footages are being examined. He was produced in the court of SDJM at Kendrapara that remanded him in judicial custody after rejecting his bail plea, SP Nitinjeet Singh said.
Sappo has as many as 27 criminal cases including murder, kidnapping and extortion pending against him from 1994 to 2016. In the last one and a half years, he had emerged as the kingpin of the racket involved in fixing tenders of various government departments in Kendrapara and intimidating contractors.
Police had launched a search operation since January to nab the tender mafia following complaints from different orgnanisations. In the last two weeks, police have arrested 29 persons, including six contractors - Bijaya Samal, Chagala Biswal, Rashmi Ranjan Sahoo, Babula Patri, Ramesh Das and Prakash Singh - on charges of tender fixing in the district, the SP added.
Police suspect that all those arrested have nexus with contractors, some notorious criminals and officials in the administration. The administration had last month cancelled tender papers of 130 projects worth around `50 crore involving saline embankment, irrigation and roads and building wings as the tenders were fixed by criminals.
Police also suspect that some contractors engaged gangsters of Kendrapara to get contract works by threatening their rival contractors.
“Miscreants were involved in tender fixing and had created terror in many offices because of which, many contractors had failed to deposit the tender papers,” added the police officer.