Bittihotra Mohanty aka Bitti Mohanty, who was convicted of raping a German woman in Alwar in 2006, died at AIIMS-Bhubaneswar while battling with stomach cancer. He was diagnosed with the cancer in October last ywar and was admitted in hospital a month ago.
Mohanty is son of former Odisha Director General (Home Guards and Fire Services) Bidya Bhusan Mohanty.
Bitti Mohanty was a rape convict
In a shocking incident, Bitti was charged with raping a German tourist on March 21, 2006 when both were staying at a hotel n Alwar. He was then 25 years old and doing a management course in Delhi. Bitti was a computer engineer.
A first-track court convicted Bitti Mohanty and sentenced him to seven years' rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000 in a record 21 days.
The chargesheet in the case was filed on March 24, 2006, and on April 12, the verdict was announced. The Rajasthan Court upheld the conviction in the same year on October 4. Later, the Supreme Court upheld the verdict.
On November 20, 2006, Mohanty was allowed a two-week parole to meet his ailing mother in Cuttack after his father deposited a surety of Rs 50,000. He, however, jumped parole and had been absconding until he was arrested again in March 2013 from Kerala.
On March 31, 2017, he was granted bail by the Supreme Court.
While hearing petitions related to his case, the apex court had again directed Bitti Mohanty to surrender by June 5, this year. Two months ago, he surrendered to the Circle Jail at Choudwar in Cuttack.
One of the quickest rape trials
His case was one of the quickest rape trials conducted by a fast-track court; the trial was completed within 15 days of lodging the complaint. The parole was granted within 8 months of his conviction. His father, Bidya Bhushan Mohanty (B.B. Mohanty), an IPs officer, stood as surety for his son's 15 days' parole and was subsequently suspended and arrested on the charges of helping, hiding and harbouring his son.
He was later reinstated into service in 2009 and retired in 2012. Six years after his son's disappearance, the father expressed ignorance about his son's whereabouts and asserted that his son did not commit any major crime.
A.S. Gill, then Director General of Police of Rajasthan and B.B. Mohanty were batch mates, and it was alleged that the investigation was slowed down due to intervention of high-ranking officials. The investigating parole officer was transferred abruptly on 29 May 2007, and this hampered a speedy investigation.
Arrested again from Kerala in dramatic way
After absconding, Bitti changed his name and disguised as one Raghav Ranjan and started working as a probationary officer in a bank in Kerala.
On March 8, 2013, Bitti was arrested in Kerala's Kannur district on the basis of a complaint lodged by a bank after it got an anonymous letter informing it that Raghav Ranjan was a rape convict. The letter came as he was slated to be transferred to another branch after training.
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