Kendrapara: The police's special task force (STF) have initiated steps to bring the arrested gangster Seikh Usman Ali alias Tito under the scanner of enforcement directorate and stringent provisions of money laundering act.

The recent raid on Tito's house has brought in its wake a disturbing trend. The gangster now in STF remand is learnt to have accumulated huge quantum of movable and immovable assets.

He was injured on June 30 in an encounter with the STF near Chandikhole in Jajpur district.

The ill-gotten wealth detected during recent raids included various business houses, fleet of commercial vehicles and records of urban homestead plots, luxury vehicles and a number of bank accounts and saving certificates.

"We have seized various incriminating documents that lend credence to the belief that the arrested gangster accumulated huge assets. Sources of income and the accumulated wealth are apparently disproportionate," said an STF official.

"Tito was taken on four-day remand following his arrest on June 30. We have taken him again on four day remand. We are hopeful of eliciting further clues both on criminal activities and wealth accumulation. His alleged involvement with crime-mongers from Hyderabad and Calcutta is also being investigated," he said.

"We are compiling a comprehensive report on ill-gotten wealth amassed by the crime-monger. The Centre's enforcement directorate would be apprised of it shortly with a suggestion of confiscation of ill-gotten property besides initiation of legal proceedings under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2005," he said.

The act provides for the freezing, seizure and confiscation of the proceeds of crime.

Alleged political patronage emboldened the gangster to expand his network to tender-fixing of government civil construction works. There are past instances of Tito-led gang being engaged by parties in booth capturing and rigging in polls. Most recently, the younger brother of the gangster had joined the BJD fold, the official said.