Bhubaneswar: The hunt for the alleged mastermind behind the illegal trafficking of five infant orangutans has taken a dramatic turn. Investigators are now tracking whether Digha-based hotelier Jayanta Maiti has fled toward Jharkhand following consecutive raids on his West Bengal properties.

For the Odisha Crime Branch STF, time is fast becoming the biggest adversary. Sensing that his black Mahindra Thar has completely compromised the wildlife smuggling operation, the suspect appears to be on a calculated mission to erase his trail.

While the STF secured decisive breakthrough leads in the initial hours of the bust, the momentum has slowed into a high-stakes standoff against a highly organized trafficking network.

Even though the STF moved with clinical speed to launch a swift raid at ground zero – the Grand Heritage Hotel in Digha – the trail has grown cold. The traffickers successfully blocked the operational footprint starting from the hotel, cutting off the vital digital and physical links that could have unraveled an international network of this magnitude.

HOW STF REACHED GRAND HERITAGE HOTEL

The breakthrough came from the movement of a black Mahindra Thar suspected to have been used in the alleged transportation of exotic wildlife, following its suspicious in and outs along the Bichitrapur roads. The frames of which have been captured on the CCTVs

Taking the suspicious movements ascrucial lead, STF immediately examined over 55 CCTV frames collected from the interstate border belt.

The STF began reconstructing the vehicle's movement and ownership trail.

The trail eventually took investigators towards Digha in Purba Medinipur, where the vehicle was linked to Jayanta Maiti, a hotelier with business interests in the coastal town.

The investigation then moved rapidly from the road to the hotel.

The Grand Heritage Hotel became a crucial point of interest for the STF as investigators attempted to establish whether the premises had been used as part of the alleged wildlife-smuggling operation.

But by the time the investigators reached the property, the man they were looking for was no longer there.

THE HOTEL WAS EMPTY. THE TRAIL WAS CLEANED OUT.

What investigators encountered at the hotel reportedly added another layer of difficulty.

The premises did not simply provide investigators with the kind of digital trail they would normally expect from a property suspected of being connected to an organised operation.

CCTV equipment had allegedly been removed.

The digital surveillance trail that could have helped investigators establish who had entered the premises, whom Maiti had met and whether vehicles connected with the suspected wildlife movement had arrived there had effectively disappeared.

The hotel was closed.

The doors were locked.

And the suspected key operator was missing.

For the STF, the raid had therefore produced an unusual outcome.

The investigators had reached the suspected operational location – but the operation's most important evidence appeared to have already been taken away.

Maiti, investigators suspected, had moved before the police could close in.

THE HOWRAH RAID: ANOTHER EMPTY HOUSE

The STF then followed another known link.

The investigation moved to Andul in Howrah, where Maiti's residence was located.

The expectation was straightforward: if the Digha hotel had been emptied, the residence could provide the next layer of evidence.

Instead, investigators again encountered a locked property.

The house was reportedly closed and the suspected accused was nowhere to be found.

The second raid therefore failed to produce the breakthrough investigators were looking for.

There was no immediate confrontation with the suspected mastermind.

No key accused was arrested.

And the physical locations that could have yielded critical evidence had already been secured - or abandoned.

WAS MAITI ONE STEP AHEAD OF THE STF?

For investigators, the pattern was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

The hotel had been shut.

The surveillance infrastructure at the property had reportedly been removed.

The residence at Howrah was also locked.

And the principal suspect had disappeared before the raids could yield the decisive evidence the STF was seeking.

In effect, Maiti appeared to have stayed one step ahead of the investigating team.

The suspected mastermind had not merely vanished from one location.

He appeared to have ensured that the two most obvious places connected with him offered investigators very little to work with.

That raised a critical question.

Had the STF's most promising lead – the black Thar – also reached the end of its usefulness?

HAD THE STF REACHED A DEAD END?

For a period, the investigation appeared to be heading towards precisely that point.

The STF had traced the suspicious vehicle.

It had followed its ownership trail.

It had reached the hotel.

It had raided the suspected mastermind's residence.

But neither location produced the breakthrough investigators needed to locate Maiti.

The Thar had taken investigators to the suspect.

But it had not taken them to the suspect's present location.

The vehicle trail had seemingly been exhausted.

The investigation was therefore left with a disturbing possibility: the STF knew who it wanted to question, but not where he had gone.

That was when investigators began looking beyond the immediate Digha-Howrah footprint.

THEN STF FOUND A LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

According to STF sources, investigators have now dug deeper into the vehicle records and uncovered a geographical detail that could potentially reopen the entire manhunt.

Despite Maiti's known business footprint being centred around Digha, and his residence being located at Howrah, the black Mahindra Thar allegedly used in the suspected movement of exotic wildlife was registered under the Purulia RTO.

And that changed the direction of the investigation.

Purulia is not Digha.

It is not Howrah.

It lies in the western part of West Bengal and directly borders Jharkhand.

The vehicle's registration therefore gives investigators a completely different geographical lead from the one they had been following on the eastern and coastal side of the state.

THE PURULIA CLUE: THE PIECE THAT WAS MISSING

For the STF, the question now is no longer simply why a Digha-based hotelier was using a vehicle registered in Purulia.

The bigger question is:

Did the Purulia connection provide Maiti with an escape route after the STF began closing in?

STF sources believe that the Purulia registration could be significant because of its proximity to the Jharkhand border.

Investigators are now examining whether Jayanta Maiti and his son may have used the Purulia-Jharkhand corridor to disappear from the radar, potentially attempting to erase the trail linking them to the alleged movement of exotic wildlife.

The theory remains under investigation.

But it offers the STF something it did not have after the Digha and Howrah raids:

a possible direction in which the suspected mastermind may have fled.

FROM A BLACK THAR TO THE JHARKHAND BORDER

The investigation has therefore taken an unexpected route.

It began with five infant orangutans recovered near the Odisha-West Bengal border.

It moved to CCTV footage.

The footage led investigators to a black Thar.

The vehicle led them to Jayanta Maiti.

Maiti's trail led the STF to the Grand Heritage Hotel in Digha.

The hotel led investigators to an empty property with its CCTV infrastructure reportedly removed.

The investigation then moved to Howrah.

Another locked property.

Another missing suspect.

And when the vehicle trail appeared to have run out of road, investigators looked deeper into its registration.

That is when Purulia surfaced.

And Purulia opened the door to Jharkhand.

THE BIG QUESTION NOW: WHERE IS JAYANTA MAITI?

The STF now has to establish whether the Purulia connection is merely a vehicle-registration detail – or the missing link in the suspected mastermind's escape.

Investigators will have to establish whether Maiti or his son had active contacts, properties, financial transactions or other connections in the Purulia region.

More importantly, they will need to determine whether there is evidence showing that either of them subsequently crossed into Jharkhand.

Until that evidence is established, the Jharkhand angle remains an investigative theory.

But after the Digha and Howrah raids yielded no breakthrough, the Purulia registration has given the STF a fresh direction in a case that appeared to be running out of road.

The five orangutans may have been rescued.

The suspected trafficking trail, however, is still alive.

And this time, the trail appears to be pointing to another State. 
Also Read: Special Report| From Digha Deals to Kolaghat Epicentre: How Odisha STF’s Inter-State Trail Struck the Core of West Bengal’s Exotic Wildlife Syndicate