BHUBANESWAR: In pursuit of physical evidence to pin down the Dhal Samanta brothers, the Commissionerate Police on Thursday sent a joint team to a bordering district of Jharkhand where bodies of Dipu Mallick and Omm Prakash Swain have been allegedly disposed of after their murder more than two years back.
A police team along with a forensic squad escorted Litu, an aide of the two brothers, to the neighbouring State to examine the place where bodies of Dipu and Omm were burnt and buried, reliable sources said. Litu was in judicial custody and Commissionerate Police has taken him on remand too.
Dipu and Omm, both henchmen of the gangster brothers, were murdered in Cuttack district in 2013 but the siblings failed to keep the matter under wraps which prompted them to plan the disposal outside the State, sources said.
During interrogation and leads received from various associates, the Commissionerate Police zeroed in on the exact location in Jharkhand where the bodies were burnt and buried, the sources said. The disposal method could be likened to the sensational Sheena Bora murder in which the young woman was murdered in Mumbai but her body was disposed of in Raigad district of Maharashtra.
“Although the incident happened more than two years back, we are hopeful of getting some physical evidence from the spot which would be key to the investigation,” reliable sources told this paper.
The Commissionerate Police did not divulge the details of the location in order to safeguard the investigation and identity of the joint investigation team. If any evidence is found from the spot, DNA testing may be taken up for ascertaining the details.
Just like Sheena Bora case, the local police in Jharkhand had found remnants of the disposed bodies and registered a case of homicide but with no details emerging, it closed the case by submitting the final form, the sources informed.
The method of disposal suited the modus operandi of the Dhal Samanta brothers who are facing investigation for the double murder.
On Thursday, another police team, escorted by a forensic unit, took one of the brothers, to a place in Cuttack district where Dipu and Omm were allegedly murdered. Twin City police wants to examine the crime scene in hope of getting evidence which could aid the investigation.
The sources said the two brothers had allegedly eliminated Dipu and Omm on the same night but the offence allegedly came to the knowledge of some outsiders. To escape police notice, the bodies were allegedly taken to Jharkhand for disposal where the duo knew it would not raise any alarm.
Meanwhile, the fate of the plea for polygraph test will be known on February 13 when the brother duo would be produced before the Cuttack court after end of their remand period.
PIL in High Court for CBI Probe
Cuttack: Even as the police are digging deep into the alleged criminal activities and nexus of Dhal Samanta brothers, a PIL has been filed in Orissa High Court for directing CBI to take over the case. Pradeep Pradhan, a human rights activist, has knocked the doors of the court seeking a CBI probe into the case as the magnitude of offence is huge and the activities of the gangster brothers spanned beyond the State. Alleging Dhal Samanta brothers’ close links with politicians and influential persons and citing revelations of operational network outside Odisha, the petitioner stated that the State police was not only logistically ill-equipped to conduct an effective investigation into the matter but also could be influenced by the powerful. While a probe by the Central agency would be fair and impartial, recovery of defence ordinance like an Army carbine from their house warranted a higher degree of investigation, the petitioner submitted. The matter is likely to be taken up soon.