INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - JANUARY 1^st - JANUARY 15^th - 2008

SUPREME COURT ASKS IPS OFFICER B B MOHANTI TO SURRENDER

THE Supreme Court has declined to stay the execution of a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against suspended IPS officer B B Mohanti, who has been accused of helping his son who jumped parole after being jailed for raping a German national in Rajasthan. The court granted two weeks' time to the Orissa cadre IPS officer to surrender before the Rajasthan police.

A bench comprising Justice C K Thakker and Justice D K Jain said, Mohanti's bail plea will be heard expeditiously by the trial court in Jaipur only after he surrenders.

Mohanti, who was a DGP-rank officer at the time of his suspension, had filed an appeal against the order of the Rajasthan High Court concurring with the trial court's decision not to convert the NBW into a bailable warrant.

The NBW was issued in June last year by the chief judicial magistrate, Jaipur, after the IPS officer failed to explain the whereabouts of his son Bitti, whose release on parole from a Rajasthan prison was facilitated by him by giving a surety. Bitti, who was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for rape, was granted parole on November 20, 2006 for two weeks, but he failed to return to jail thereafter.

The Rajasthan government had alleged that Orissa was not co-operating with it in executing the NBW against the suspended IPS officer. After the NBW had been issued, Rajasthan police made frantic searches in the residence and office premises of the IPS officer, but could not locate him. Bitti, a management student, was held guilty for raping a German national by a fast-track court in Rajasthan in April 2006.