Mohanti may surrender, says family

BHUBANESWAR: A day after his suspension, Orissa's DG (Fire Services) B B Mohanti, against whom the Rajasthan High Court has issued a non-bailable arrest warrant for allegedly sheltering his son, a rape convict, has been weighing his options for surrendering.

According to his family, Mohanti, who could not be traced since Friday, is yet to decide whether to surrender to the police at Cuttack or directly before the Rajasthan court which issued the NBW against him.

Family members, however, want him to surrender at the Rajasthan High Court to avoid the embarrassment of being arrested in his own state.

Sources close to Mohanti said his lawyers and well wishers had advised him to surrender to the police.
   
One of his legal counsels told, "I want him to first move the Rajasthan High Court on Monday and wait for a day. If the high court's verdict does not come by Tuesday evening, he should surrender."

Cuttack superintendent of police Soumendra Priyadarshi told that a special team constituted to execute the NBW had searched different places, including his official residence at 3:00 am, but he could not be traced.

Police suspected that Mohanti could have left the state.

Rajasthan Police have twice failed to nab Mohanti, accused of sheltering his son after he jumped parole on being released from a prison in Rajasthan, as he had gone on leave.

Bitihotra was convicted for raping a German woman. Authorities have been unable to trace him since he jumped parole in December last year.