Cuttack: Having registered a murder case following the mysterious death of Oriya album and cine actor Ranajit Patnaik alias Raja, Soro police Thursday detained two people after conducting raids in Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and Jajpur.
The three people who had accompanied the actor in a car on the fateful night – actress Pralipta Priyadarshani Samal alias Jessi, programme coordinator Pralay Jena and car driver Dhaneswar – were summoned by Soro police over the 38-year-old actor’s death. Police conducted the raids since the trio did not turn up at the police station till Wednesday evening. Jena and Dhaneswar were detained and interrogated while police failed to trace Jessi.
Inspector-in-charge of Soro police Parsuram Sahu said three teams carried out the raids in the early hours of Thursday. A team led by Sahu and sub-inspector Mandakini Mohanty raided Jessi’s rented house at Shaktinagar in Cuttack, but found the actress, her parents and her brother missing.
Dhaneswar was detained after a raid in Nayapalli area in Bhubaneswar while Jena was detained at Chandrasekhar Housing Board Colony after a raid conducted by a team led by sub-inspector Patipawan Panda. A raid on the house of Jessi’s relative in Jajpur failed to trace her. Further raids are on to trace her, police said.
Pralay and Dhaneswar were brought to Soro police station and grilled about the circumstances leading to Raja’s death. Police, however, failed to extract anything new or significant from them. Police then took the duo to Chaparpada Bridge over Kansabansa River where the incident took place. Jena repeated his earlier statements, saying a heated argument had ensued between Raja and Jessi while returning in the car and that Jessi had attempted suicide by jumping off the car. Raja had got down from the car on the pretext of attending nature’s call and had started running, said Jena.
When they searched for Raja some time later, his body was found lying under the bridge, he said. Raja was taken to Bhadrak hospital in an ambulance and later shifted to SCB Medical College and Hospital (SCBMCH), added Jena. Asked about why they ran away from SCBMCH leaving Raja’s body there, Jena said he was there till 8 am but he did not come before Raja’s grieving family members.
“Since Raja’s family members did not bring any direct allegations of murder against the duo and there is no counter view over their statements, we have no option but to believe their version,” said Sahu. “Since Jessi remains evasive, we will continue the raids to trace her,” he added. PNN
