Berhampur: Former Congress MLA Ramesh Jena’s criminal empire was being spearheaded by Jena’s father Arakhita and a local corporator named Murali from Ward 5 of the city, superintendent of police Sarthak Sarangi told the media Friday.
The arrested MLA’s vast empire ranges from fraudulent real estate deals and illegal gutkha manufacturing units to gunrunning rackets, with all illegal transactions being managed by Arakhita and Murali, according to police.
Police are planning to take the duo on remand to get to the bottom of the well-oiled racket. Earlier, 30 bank passbooks were seized from Jena’s house and a sum of Rs17 lakh was found to be in the accounts, while verification of 16 other passbooks is yet to be done, police said.
According to police, the MLA had invested in several gutkha companies operating in Sadar and Badabazaar police station limits. Venkat Patra and Prashant Mohanty, two of Jena’s associates, were produced in court over the issue, the SP said, adding corporator Murali too was involved.
Meanwhile, police came to know that many builders, who had direct and indirect links with Jena’s empire, are on the run. Babula Sahani of Nandighosh Builders would be a prize catch and he would be produced in court once he is arrested, Sarangi said.
Police also seized a Mahindra Bolero and a Tata Indigo Friday. The vehicles were given to the BSNL department on rent and they were registered in Murali’s name. With these, the number of seized vehicles has gone up to 21, according to police.
The court Friday granted bail to Arakhita in a gunrunning case. Arakhita’s advocate argued his client was 70 years old and that he was not involved in the case. However, he is still in jail custody on the charge of extorting money from a local liquor trader.
Police also picked up Tikina Patra, who wrote most of the land deeds for Ramesh for land deals, from Kanishi. He was on the run for some time. Besides, a woman employee of RI office has been detained for her connections to Ramesh. She too had made crores of rupees and had accumulated huge properties after getting in touch with the MLA, the police said.
On the other hand, state crime branch informed police about Ramesh’s involvement in the murder of former sarpanch Srinivas Rath of Malabhanja. He was killed in 2009.
Former mayor Pintu Das held
Police arrested former mayor Pintu Das, a high-profile accused who was on the run for several days, from Bangalore, a well-placed source Friday said. Though police were found tight-lipped about the development, the news is doing the rounds across the city. According to sources, after the arrest of Ramesh Jena, police set their targets on Pintu. He would be arrested soon, the SP had earlier said. Pintu’s empire is said to be larger than Jena’s so far as landed properties are concerned, a senior police officials earlier said. Police had planned to arrest him earlier but were unable to. However, they have succeeded this time as it is learnt that he was picked up from a hotel in Bangalore and has been kept at a nearby police station. However, Berhampur police are not commenting on the issue and have termed it as speculation. SP Sarangi meanwhile said Pintu is yet to be arrested.
