Cuttack, March 8: Gangster siblings Sushant and Sushil Dhal Samant had plans to float a statewide youth association to ensure that they had a say in politics.
Sushil Dhal Samant was more interested in setting up the organisation to pursue his political ambitions. They were targeting to have a membership of over 50,000 for the unit, police sources said.
The gangsters were in touch with youth and students' leaders in different areas, especially in Rourkela, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Khurda and Nayagarh.
A senior official told The Telegraph that the gangster duo had assigned five of their close associates to rope in important youth and student leaders in the state for their organisation. However, it did not materialise after the duo's arrest from their hideout in Bhubaneswar on January 28.
"Sushil was keen on projecting himself as the emerging youth leader in the state. He was successful to some extend by floating the Cuttack Nagar Yuvak Sangha," the official said.
Sushil's Cuttack Nagar Yuvak Sangha has a membership of 5,000 youths. The organisation had organised a mega blood donation camp in which over 3,000 units of blood were collected in a single camp held on January 10 and this function became controversial as it was attended by leaders cutting across party affiliations including Union minister of state for petroleum Dharmendra Pradhan.
In a related development, the police on Tuesday sent a special team to Calcutta to conduct further investigation into the recovery of the sophisticated carbine from the Dhal Samant brothers.
"Preliminary investigation reveals that the carbine was issued from one of the Indian Ordinance Factories in Calcutta and one team has been sent to ascertain the exact source from where the weapon was issued and how it reached the two brothers," said Y.B. Khurania, police commissioner.
The police had seized 13 firearms, including eight mausers, three pistols, a carbine and over 400 live ammunition from their house at sector VI at Markatnagar a day after their arrest on January 29.
Chauliaganj police continued to grill Asesh Mohanty alias Bulu, son of former Rourkela MLA Braja Kishore Mohanty for his alleged links with the brothers.
The police are also grilling Bulu Mohanty, who is a former councillor of Rourkela Municipality, for his alleged links with the gangsters. It is alleged that the Dhal Samant brothers had helped Bulu through one of his associates to bag Rs 12crore worth of road projects in Rourkela.