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Bitihotra case: IPS official seeks anticipatory bail

Correspondent

Tells court he has no knowledge of whereabouts of his son

CUTTACK: Following criminal cases registered against him in Rajasthan for allegedly giving protection to his son who has jumped parole, senior IPS officer of the rank of DGP in Orissa B.B. Mahanti has moved the State High Court seeking anticipatory bail.

The Rajasthan Government filed two FIRs against Mahanti on Wednesday last for not allegedly honouring the surety bond of Rs. 50,000 furnished by him to take his son Bitihotra on parole.

Cases registered

Cases under Section 120 and 130 of the IPC were filed at the Vaishali police station of Rajasthan against the senior official.

"Apprehending that the Rajasthan police may arrive in Orissa at any time and take Mahanti into custody, the Orissa High Court was approached on Friday seeking anticipatory bail," said his counsel Debashis Panda.

Mr. Panda stated that since Mahanti was residing in the jurisdiction of the Orissa HC, the petition for advance bail was maintainable here.

The court, however, had not taken cognisance of the petition yet.

Bitihotra, a 24-year-old former management student, was serving a seven-year jail term for raping a German girl. He was released on parole to be with his ailing mother from November 20 to December 4. But, he jumped parole and did not report at the jail as yet. Despite repeated raids in New Delhi and in Orissa, a joint team comprising Rajasthan, New Delhi and Orissa police was not able to apprehend him.Bitihotra reportedly arrived in Cuttack during his parole period and consulted a city-based psychiatrist.

Charge refuted

Mahanti, who had been maintaining that he had no knowledge about his son's whereabouts, told the High Court that he neither stood guarantor nor furnished any surety to release his son on parole, Mr. Panda said.

"There is no use putting pressure on a worried father who has no idea of the whereabouts of his son, especially at a time when he knows for sure that the youth needs psychiatric treatment," Mahanti said in his petition.

He also refuted the charge that he had been "shielding" his son and "trying to manipulate facts to get benefits on medical grounds" for his son.

The official also stated that his son had been in a state of "acute depression" and appeared "disoriented" when he last saw him during the parole period.

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