Cuttack: Police have filed a petition in court of judicial magistrate first class, Cuttack, for shifting gangster Sushant Dhal Samant from Jharpada jail.
Assistant public prosecutor Biswajit Baral on Thursday said a petition had been filed for shifting Sushant far away from Cuttack, preferably Balangir jail, after the police ascertained that he had hatched the conspiracy to kill one Bijay Kumar Pal from inside the Jharpada prison.
Sushant, the elder of the don siblings, has been cause for fresh concern following the recent attempt to kill Pal in his house at Subhadrapur.
"The petition came up on Wednesday. After hearing the prosecution's case, the Cuttack court posted the matter to March 26 for hearing, along with the objections raised by Sushant's counsel," Baral said. The petition has expressed apprehensions that if Sushant is kept in Jharpada jail, there is every possibility that he will collude with other criminals lodged there to execute conspiracies from inside the prison.
The prosecution cited the recent case of Mrutyunjaya Nayak alias Miku, a criminal, who fired at Pal on February 23, three days after his release from Jharpada jail.
The police said investigations had so far indicated that the attempt on Pal's life was allegedly part of a conspiracy to eliminate three contractors, who had refused to cough up extortion money to the henchmen of the Dhal Samant brothers.
The police claimed that Sushant had allegedly managed to pull strings from inside the jail to get Miku out on bail to settle scores on his behalf. Miku came in contact with Sushant while he had been lodged in Jharpada jail. Sushant allegedly helped Miku get bail on condition that he would get rid of the three contractors.
Two years ago when the gangster siblings Sushant and Sushil Dhal Samant were in Choudwar jail following their arrest in January 2016, the police had sought court direction for shifting them to any other two different jails in the state having videoconference facility. The police had then apprehended the possibility of the gangster duo continuing their criminal network from inside the Choudwar jail, because of its proximity to Cuttack,
Subsequently, Sushant and Sushil were shifted to Jharpada jail in Bhubaneswar and Balasore jail, respectively, on March 12.
Parcel bomb
The police superintendent of Balangir is monitoring the investigation in the Patnagarh parcel bomb tragedy, while crime branch is look into the cyber and forensic angle of the case, crime branch superintendent Radha Binod Panigrahi said on Thursday.
