KENDRAPARA: Vigilance sleuths continued to raid government offices and other places in Kendrapara to unearth ill-gotten property of the notorious gangster Usman Ali alias Tito.On Monday, they raided offices of Kendrapara Municipality, Civil Supply Office, offices of tehsildars of Kendrapara, Derabishi and Garadapur and seized many incriminating documents linked with involvement of Tito and his associates in illegal sand and stone quarrying.
They measured the land of a petrol pump owned by Benazir Bibi, Tito’s wife, in Kendrapara town. The gangster acquired land for the petrol pump by allegedly bribing government officials. During earlier investigation, they had found out that the municipal officials had illegally leased out government land for an approach road to Tito’s petrol pump. The Vigilance sleuths ascertained that the deed of agreement in this regard, executed on August 7, 2015 between the then executive officer, Kendrapara Municipality and Benazir Bibi was not registered in the sub-registrar office, which is a violation of Section 17 (1)(d) of the Registration Act, 1908.
“Our preliminary investigation revealed that Tito and his associates purchased vast tracts of valuable land in Kendrapara town and nearby areas,” said PK Nayak, a Vigilance official.Tito was arrested following an encounter on June 30 by Special Task Force (STF) of Crime Branch. STF has formed a special team to arrest all the five brothers and other close associates of Tito, who managed to flee from Kendrapara town, said Prasant Kumar Bhoi, Crime Branch SP. Earlier, the STF sealed commercial and residential premises of Tito and his associates in Kendrapara, Paradip and Cuttack.
Guv’s intervention sought by BJP
Paradip: Activists of BJP’s Krushak Morcha have sought the intervention of Odisha Governor Ganeshi Lal to conduct an inquiry against Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, other BJD leaders and police officials for their alleged links with Tito. BJP leaders Gatkrushna Satpathy and Tapan Kumar Behera alleged that not only ruling party leaders but also police officials were providing protection to Tito and his accomplices. The Chief Minister is in charge of the Home department for the last 19 years and criminal activities have increased during this period, they said. They submitted a memorandum in this regard to the Governor through the Kujnag tehsildar and another memorandum to the Director-General of Police against police officials who allegedly provided protection to Tito and helped him expand his empire, through IIC of Kujang police station.