Bittihotra Mohanty, convicted of raping a German woman in Alwar, Rajasthan, in 2006, passed away late Sunday night while receiving treatment at AIIMS-Bhubaneswar.
According to hospital sources, Mohanty, the son of former Odisha Director General of Home Guards and Fire Services Bidya Bhusan Mohanty, was diagnosed with stomach cancer last October and had been admitted to AIIMS about a month ago.
Known as Bitti, Mohanty was 25 and pursuing a management course in Delhi when he was charged with the rape of a German woman on March 21, 2006.
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A fast-track court convicted Bittihotra Mohanty and sentenced him to seven years of rigorous imprisonment along with a Rs 10,000 fine, delivering the verdict in just 21 days.
The chargesheet was filed on March 24, 2006, and the verdict was announced on April 12 of the same year. The Rajasthan High Court confirmed the conviction on October 4, 2006, and the Supreme Court later upheld this decision.
On November 20, 2006, Mohanty was granted a two-week parole to visit his ailing mother in Cuttack, after his father provided a surety of Rs 50,000. However, he violated the terms of his parole and remained at large until his arrest in Kerala in March 2013.
The Supreme Court granted him bail on March 31, 2017.
While reviewing petitions related to his case, the Supreme Court instructed Bittihotra Mohanty to surrender by June 5 of this year. Two months ago, he complied and surrendered at the Circle Jail in Choudwar, Cuttack.
Mohanty’s father, a 1972-batch IPS officer, was suspended by the Odisha government in August 2007 after a Rajasthan court issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against him for allegedly aiding his son’s escape from parole. He subsequently became a fugitive himself. His suspension was lifted in May 2009, and he retired from service in 2012.
On March 8, 2013, Bittihotra Mohanty was apprehended in Kannur district, Kerala, following a complaint from a bank. The complaint was based on an anonymous letter that alleged Raghav Ranjan, a probationary officer at the bank, was actually a convicted rapist. This revelation came just as Ranjan was about to be transferred to another branch after his training.
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