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5 ‘involved’ in kidnap of businessman held

BHUBANESWAR: The sensational kidnapping of Keonjhar-based businessman Rasmi Ranjan Mohapatra is all set to take a dramatic turn with State police arresting five persons who were “involved” in extorting from victim’s family members.

One of the nabbed culprits was identified as Seikh Chuni, son of gangster Haider, who is lodged in Bolangir district jail.

Police caught red-handed one Ganapati Ray, lawyer of Haider, and Babloo Khan, henchman of gangster, from a hotel in Bolangir town while they were collecting extortion money, district Superintendent of Police Himanshu Lal said over the phone on Sunday.

The Kendrapara police, who were involved in joint operation with Bolangir police, arrested Seikh Chuni from Kendrapara town. They also caught hold of a couple identified as Gayatri Biswal and Jajati Biswal. The Biswal couple was allegedly operating the extortion network on behalf of Haider.

After the arrest of five persons, gangster Haider reportedly revealed to police that Mohapatra was alive.

Mohapatra, who was kidnapped from Bhubaneswar in May last year, was widely believed to have been killed by his abductors. “We have arrested Ray and Khan who were collecting Rs. 10 lakhs each from family members of the businessman,” Mr. Lal said.

On interrogation it was revealed that Haider had already received extortion money to the tune of Rs. 1 crore from Mohapatra’s family members while he was in the process of collecting similar amount from them, the SP said.

“We will pray to court for getting Haider on remand to take the investigation forward,” the SP said.

The SP said the gangster was using more than 50 SIM cards to operate his crime world and his network was quite spread-out. “We have got definite clues that many mine owners in Keonjhar district were on his target list,” he said.

Bhubaneswar police had not been able to solve the kidnap saga involving Mohapatra. After his abduction from Bhubaneswar, body of his driver, Nabakishore Mohanta, was found near Ranchi in Jharkhand.

Though another mutilated body was found in the same region and police suspected the body to be of Mohapatra, his family member did not go to Ranchi to identify it. The businessman’s family was of the firm belief that Mohapatra was alive.

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