Gangster Tito
KENDRAPARA: THE Special Task Force (STF) of Crime Branch questioned executive engineers of Rural Works and Lift Irrigation wings here on Friday in connection with tender fixing by gangster Usman Ali alias Tito.
Executive engineer of Rural Works Nalinikanta Senapati and his counterpart in Life Irrigation wing Bidya Bhusan Nayak were questioned for more than four hours in the SDPO’s office. The STF sleuths suspect that the officials provided undue favours to the gangster as a result of which, Tito and his associates minted crores of rupees by fixing tenders of many government projects.
Earlier on Thursday, the STF arrested two associates of the gangster - Saroj Pati of Mahipal in Kendrapara district and Batkrishna Pani alias Batu of Tamando. They had reportedly threatened a contractor of Rajnagar for extortion. While Pati was looking after Tito’s illegal activities like tender fixing, extortion, committing murders and others, Pani was involved in cattle smuggling.
Two weeks back, Vigilance sleuths had seized incriminating documents from the offices of Irrigation department, District Sub-Registrar, Civil Supply, Rural Works division, Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS), Roads and Buildings Department and a private bank in Kendrapara town to trace Tito’s links with government officials.
Prior to that, STF had summoned tehsildars of Kendrapara, Mahakalapada, Pattamundai, Garadpur and Marsaghai in Kendrapara district and Dharmasala and Balichandrapur under Jajpur district, to get information and documents related to sand mining.
On August 1, the Vigilance sleuths raided houses of APR havildar of Kendrapara Reserve Police Trilokya Jena on charges of acquisition and possession of property disproportionate to his known sources of income in nexus with Tito. During investigation, Vigilance sleuths had found out that officials of Kendrapara Municipality illegally leased out government land for an approach road to a petrol pump owned by Tito’s wife Benazir Bibi. Tito was arrested following an encounter on June 30.
