Odisha cops quiz Dhalasamanta duo over money, arms haul

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Cuttack, Feb 2:

After getting the Dhalasamanta brothers on a seven day remand yesterday, the Twin City Commissionerate Police today brought the two brothers Sushil and Sushant Dhalasamanta to the Chauliaganj police station of Odisha’s millennium city and is subjecting them to intense grilling on their crime empire and the sources of their immense wealth which is disproportionate to their known sources of income.

A six member team from the Income Tax department is quizzing the Dhalasamanta brothers separately in phases in presence of senior police officers, said police sources.

Several police teams comprising of select police officers led by Cuttack DCP Sanjeev Arora are grilling the Dhalasamanta brothers on their sources of income, political links if any and on how they procured such sophisticated firearms and ammunitions, sources revealed.

Sources said the Commissionerate Police has been able to trace a bank account with a deposit of Rs 7 lakh in it at Visakhapatnam operated by Sushant Kumar Dhalasamanta under an assumed name of Manoranjan Patnaik.

The police on Monday had prayed for a 10-day remand of the two brothers at SDJM Court here. However, the court allowed them seven days remand.

Notably, on Thursday Commissionerate Police had arrested the notorious Dhalasamanta brothers from a rented house in Pokhariput area in the Odisha capital.

Following the duo’s arrest, police conducted raids at various locations including their residence at CDA Sector 6 where police seized huge dump of arms and ammunition, cash, laptop, mobile phones, diaries and other documents.

Police had seized one .9mm carbine gun, one double-barrel gun and four .9mm mousers and 150 rounds of ammunition and cash of over Rs 2.67 crore from the searches conducted in their houses at Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.

Interrogation of the duo was continuing at the time of filing of this report.