Bhubaneswar: Tatwa Prakash Satapathy aka Papu Pom Pom, who was arrested earlier in the day on charge of sexual abusing a minor girl, was sent to judicial custody late on Thursday night as his bail petition could not be heard today in the absence of case records.
His bail plea would now be heard on July 4, court sources said.
Papu and his aide Pradipta Swain alias Gitu, who was also arrested with him from an apartment in Puri, were produced at the residential court of Khurda district and sessions judge late on Thursday night. But their bail petition could not be heard as the case diary and other documents were not available, sources said.
Papu and Gitu were then sent to the Jharpada jail.
After days of playing the cat and mouse game with the police, Papu was arrested from Puri this afternoon, commissioner of police YB Khurania said here this evening.
Briefing media persons about the circumstances leading to Pappu's arrest, Khurania said; “A special squad of the police arrested the accused duo from Nilachal Apartment in Puri this morning. They will be produced in court shortly.”
The CP informed that the apartment from which the accused were arrested is owned by Swain.
On being asked whether the public outrage and demonstrations at several places over the past few days compelled the police to speed up the investigation, Khurania said the arrest was made as the accused tried to abscond.
“When police observed that the accused avoided the notice served on them and we realised that they may not cooperate with the police in the investigation and want to abscond, we decided to arrest him. A special squad was formed for that,” he stated.
The sources said Papu is being interrogated in connection with the charges pressed against him, but refused to reveal the location on the grounds of security.
Papu will be produced in the court at the end of the preliminary interrogation, the sources added.
A formal announcement about Papu's arrest is yet to be made by commissionerate police. But an announcement made by the police earlier in the day that he would be arrested in the next 48 hours suggests that he was, in all probability, already in police custody.
"The special squad formed for the purpose is on the job. He will be arrested very soon. He could be arrested within the next 48 hours," ACP BN Dandapat had said hours before Papu's arrest.
The announcement by the ACP came after BJP women's wing today staged a demonstration outside the Mahila police station here demanding the immediate arrest of Pappu. They had given an ultimatum of 48 hours to the police to arrest Papu.
"The police says he is absconding. But we have information that he was in Nimapara area last night. It seems the police is hand in gloves with him," BJP women's wing chief Prabhati Parida said.
Commissionerate police had pasted a notice outside the residence of Papu, last night asking him to depose at the Mahila Police station in the capital city on July 7.
The notice, served under Section 41(A) of Indian Penal Code (IPC), mentioned the charges against Papu and asked him to cooperate in the investigation.
Bhubaneswar DCP Satyabrata Bhoi informed that a notice had also been pasted outside the house of Pradeep Swain, an aide of Papu.
Commissionerate Police had formed a special team led by Zone-1 ACP to arrest the actor, who had gone missing after a complaint was lodged at the Mahila Police station against him for sexually abusing a minor girl.
Notably, last week, Friends Foundation had filed a complaint at Mahila Police station against Papu accusing him of sexually abusing a minor girl after promising to give her a break in films.
The Khurda Child Welfare Committee (CWC) had asked commissionerate police to register a case against Papu after it found prima facie evidence of the veracity of the charge against him during a preliminary probe conducted by it.
Accordingly, commissionerate police had registered a case against the actor under various sections of IPC, besides Sec 8-12 of the POCSO Act.