Family helped Biti Mohanty create a new identity: Police

KOCHI: Baffled by the way Biti Mohanty weaved a false identity with a fake name and forged documents and degrees, police are now probing the possible “active" connivance of immediate family members of his father and former Odisha DGP B B Mohanty in helping the rape convict dodge the law for seven years.
A senior police officer told TOI that three of Biti’s uncles were in constant touch with him ever since he vanished without a trace while on parole in 2006. "We have evidence that an uncle and aunt regularly visited him. They were introduced as his parents to the neighbours. The details will be handed over to the Rajasthan police," he said.
Biti, however, maintained during interrogation that his father had no role in this drama and that his family had disowned him after he got embroiled in the rape case. "We can’t take that at face value. What we know is the help he received from three close relatives of his father in helping him find a sanctuary at Puttaparthi. They apparently helped him find a place to stay," police sources said.
There appears to have been an astute legal brain behind Biti’s new identity as Raghav Rajan. The sources said there is no document that mentions any address or reference that could even remotely lead to his kin. “Biti’s sole reference has been that of Rama Rao, a retired headmaster, whom he accidentally met at Puttaparthi and could convincingly cheat," the sources said.
Sources said Rao’s name was also mentioned as reference by Biti while taking up the job in SBT. "We are not clear who was introduced to Rao as Rajiv Rajan, his `father’. It is for the Rajasthan police to probe that part as the purview of our investigation is only impersonation," sources said.