Dhalasamanta aides Juga & Bhuan under police scanner

Odisha Sun Times Bureau  
Cuttack, Feb 20:

Commissionerate Police today raided the house of two more aides of Dhalasamanta brothers in Odisha’s Cuttack. While Juga Prakash Kanungo– a much feared criminal under semi-retirement was arrested, another dreaded gangster Pramod Patra alias Bhuan has been under detention.

The police seized a gun, about 50 bullets, four vehicles, 14 bank passbooks, a diary and many CDs from Juga’s Sutahat house. As per information provided by Cuttack DCP Sanjeev Arora, he was arrested following an interrogation session in the evening. He was allegedly a partner with D-brothers in tender fixing and sand mining.

Police Commissioner YB Khurania addressed a press conference after his arrest and said, “He has a long list of involvement in criminal activities including murder and extortion. There are cases against him in various police stations of Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara districts. The search operation was conducted at his house based on those pending cases”.

Juga, however, declined the charge.

“The Police found nothing from the raid. Anyone can call anybody a criminal. So long as the police can’t prove it, I am innocent,” he said.

Upon being questioned about the gun and bullets recovered from his house, he added, “I don’t see anything new in keeping an airgun to drive away dogs. Everyone has an airgun in their homes”.

Similarly, Bhuan — also the President of the Shankarpur-Badambadi Puja Committee, was taken away from his Shankarpur residence following a raid led by DCP Arora – in which Rs 72 lakh cash was seized. He has been detained at Chauliaganj police station on charges of involvement in murder, attempt to kill, extortion and bomb hurling cases and is also being questioned about his links with D-Brothers.

In a related development, former police IG Anadi Sahu held a press conference today and accused three BJP MLAs– Debashish Samantray, Rajashree Mallick and Pramod Mallick along with former Police DG Sanjeev Marik to have close links with the gangster brothers.

While Pramod Mallick declined the charge, other two MLAs were not available to comment. Marik, on the other hand, said that he would file a defamation suit against Sahu.