The curious case of Bitti Mohanty turned curiouser when a court here granted him bail on Monday, while also sending him to judicial custody and partially accepting that he was Raghav Rajan.
The court refused to remand him in police custody.
With this twist, his identity now hangs by a thread with the Rajasthan police insisting he is Bitti impersonating himself as Raghav Rajan, while his lawyer claims he is the latter, a banker residing in Kerala.
The Jaipur police on Monday presented Bitti before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate here in a parole violation case.
The police contended that Bitti and Raghav Rajan were the same person and sought him to be remanded in police custody for violating the terms of his parole in 2006 after he was convicted of raping a German woman in Alwar.
At the same time, his lawyer Ramesh Dhayal argued that he was Raghav Rajan.
“The Kerala police refused to hand him to the Rajasthan police since the production warrant brought by the latter was in the name of Bitti but this person arrested in Kerala is Raghav Rajan, not Bitti,” Mr. Dhayal told The Hindu .
“The court partially accepted our contention and granted him bail in the parole violation case. But since we could not furnish the two bail bonds and one personal surety of Rs. 5,000 each, he was sent to judicial custody,” he said.
Bitti was brought here by a team of the Kerala police on Saturday evening and handed over to the Jaipur jail authorities on Sunday.
Last week, a local court in Kannur had allowed the Kerala police to conduct a DNA test on Bitti and his parents to establish his true identity.
