Cuttack, March 21: Police have reopened an old case of kidnapping against gangster siblings Sushant and Sushil Dhal Samant.

The case of the alleged kidnapping of Baidhar Sahoo, a scrap dealer who went missing in 2005, has been reopened after the cops moved court in connection with the incident, a police official said here today.

It is suspected that the gangster brothers were involved in the alleged kidnapping of Sahoo, the Chauliaganj-based scrap dealer. The police said that the complicity of Bhola Nath Bhagat, 51, the business partner and a key associate of the brothers, in the particular case would also be verified. Bhagat was arrested by the police from Kanpur railway station on Saturday and was produced before local SDJM court here today.

Bhagat was a business partner of Sushant in the Cuttack-based metal syndicate company. Preliminary investigation reveals that Sushant was one of the key directors of the company under the name Manoj Patnaik. The cops had earlier recovered a driving licence in the name of Manoj Patnaik during a raid on the Vizag hideout of Sushant.

"We are trying to ascertain the business links of Bhagat with the brothers. It is suspected that Bhagat had played a crucial role in making fake documents for Sushant who was his business partner," said deputy commissioner of police, Sanjeev Arora.

Arora also said two murder cases of Dipu Mallick and Om Prakash Swain and two extortion cases had been registered against Bhagat. The police will also examine the role of Bhagat in the functioning of the Hyderabad-based Ramky Environ Engineers Limited that was earlier in charge of the solid waste management in Cuttack.<>Earlier, Bhagat was wanted in the Dipu Mallick and Om Prakash Swain murder case. Both Dipu and Om, who worked as sharpshooters in the Dhal Samant brothers were earlier went missing in 2013. Chauliaganj police had registered two separate murder cases against the Dhal Samant brothers following court's direction on January 18 this year. The gangster brothers were subsequently arrested from a hideout at Pokhariput in Bhubaneswar on January 29.

Panda, who had a criminal antecedent, was shot dead by goons while his body was disposed near Budhianipata Bridge on the Kishorenagar-Sompur road under Cuttack rural police station limits in June, 2012."We are going to look into that angle. However, he already has many cases lodged against his name." "We picked him up yesterday following a tip-off," said Mishra.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY RAJESH MOHANTY IN ROURKELA