Cuttack: The commissionerate police, who on Monday took two dreaded criminals Sushil Dhalasamant and his brother Sushant on a seven-day remand for further interrogation, had prepared a blueprint eight months ago to nab them.
The blueprint for Operation-D was jointly prepared by the then police commissioner RP Sharma and Cuttack DCP Sanjeev Arora after police came to know about the huge network of these two brothers.
“We had kept a close watch on these two brothers for last eight months since July last year. While Sushil had no criminal cases, his elder brother had a murder case in his name. To get more information about their modus operandi, police had employed a person in the Dhalasamant gang,” Arora told OTV on Monday.
He said the police got into act after the Chauliaganj police registered a murder case against Sushil recently and acting on a tip-off, nabbed the two brothers from a house in Pokhariput area of Bhubaneswar on January 28.
Talking about the activities of these two brothers, Arora said they were primarily involved in tender fixing and extortion. “Their network is spread across Odisha, particularly in the coastal districts. Basing on the statement of their associates, some of whom have been arrested, we are conducting raids at several places to get more information,” he said.
The DCP further said that the police have also seized some arms and ammunitions during a raid today.
Asked about the source of income of the Dhalasamant brothers, he said apart from tender fixing, they were involved in smuggling of arms.
Besides, Sushil had set up a transport company ‘Metaphor’ in which he and his brothers were the directors. “Though these two brothers were paying income tax showing their annual income at Rs 15 lakh, their annual earning was around Rs 100 crore,” Arora said.
He also said to earn a good name, Sushil had formed a youth club named Cuttack Nagar Yuvak Sangh in which he had employed about 300 youths and paying them a monthly remuneration of Rs 5000-Rs 10,000.
“Apart from this, Sushil had a plan to set up a state-of-the-art hospital in Bhubaneswar with an investment of Rs 1600 crore,” he informed.
Police, in the meanwhile, have seized a secret diary, a CD and other documents from the house of Dhalasamant brothers. In the diary, police have found the names of some retired police officers, senior political leaders and influential persons.
“We will investigate and examine every aspect in course of our investigation”, police commissioner YB Khurania said.