The Orissa High Court on Friday directed a petitioner, who is an RTI activist, to furnish the details of at least any one criminal case registered against the arrested mafia Dhalsamant brothers for the purpose of reference and posted his petition to be adjudicated again on Monday. A Division Bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Pradeep K Mohanty gave the direction after preliminary hearing of the petition.
Seeking either a CBI inquiry or a court-monitored investigation into the alleged political links of the mafia dons, RTI activist Pradeep Pradhan has approached the High Court through a PIl apprehending that the recovery of sophisticated firearms, huge caches of ammunition and cash from the houses of the arrested brothers may lead to a sensational breakthrough.
Sushil Dhlsamant and his elder brother Sushant were arrested by the Commissionerate Police last month for their alleged involvement in the murder of two of their former associates in November 2013. The police in the meantime have arrested at least ten of their associates and slapped a total of seven cases against them so far, including alleged possession of counterfeit currency notes.
In a related matter, High Court Justice BK Nayak also on the day made the arrested brothers as respondents in a plea made by the investigating officer (IO) seeking to handcuff the brothers during their transit on police remand. The brothers were asked to put forth their views through their advocate on the plea made by the IO, and the matter was also adjourned for Monday.
Ever since their arrest on January 29, the police have taken the brothers on remand for three times, and each time a lower court has rejected the pleas of the IO to handcuff the brothers. The lower court has also rejected the police plea to subject the brothers to polygraph test after the brothers declined for this test.
In another development, the police on the day registered yet another case against the brothers under Sections 489 (D) and 489 (C) after it was detected that some currency notes seized from their houses turned out to be fake. Police had claimed of seizing nearly Rs 2.70 crore from their houses out of which nearly Rs 12,000 was found counterfeits after bank verifications.