Bhubaneswar: The puzzle around the death of an assistant Engineer at a city guest house still remains unsolved even after the lapse of three years of the fateful incident at a lodge in Khandagiri. The sleuths of crime branch— considered premier investigative agency of the state police— has also been groping in the dark. The death of the engineer is still shrouded in mystery as of yet.
Akshaya Kumar Pothal’s mother, Subhashini Behera, has been running from pillar to post in pursuit of justice for her lone son in her ripe age. However, justice eludes her despite all her efforts.
Notably, Pothal was working as an Assistant Engineer at the Central Ground Water Board at Khandagiri here. He had been staying in a guest house despite having two luxury flats in the city. His body was recovered from his room in the guest house July 17, 2016.
The staff of the guest house rushed him to Capital Hospital where doctors declared him ‘brought dead’. Later, police sent the body for post mortem. The autopsy report revealed the cause of death as ‘intracranial hemorrhage’ which, it claimed, might be due to falling off the cot or pathological reasons like high blood pressure. The investigating officer of Khandagiri police registered an UD case and concluded that Pothal who was under the influence of alcohol, died after falling off the cot in his hotel room.
However, his mother who is an ex-school teacher approached the high court seeking reinvestigation into the matter.
The high court after going through all the evidences shed light on some of the glaring lacunae in the investigation done by the Khandagiri police. The court questioned the investigating officer’s conclusion and queried how Pothal sustained the injury by falling off the cot with just 1.5 feet height from the floor. The court further suspected various wound marks on the body of Pothal.
Hence, the court asked the local police to reinvestigate the case. Later, the police authorities handed over the case to the crime branch after his mother’s repeated pleas before different forums in November, 2018.
Speaking to Orissa POST, the investigating officer of crime branch said, “The probe into the case has been going on under the direct supervision of the Inspector general of Crime branch. We have taken the case with much seriousness. The lie detector tests of the witnesses and examination of the evidences have been conducted afresh.”
The crime Branch sleuths are also puzzled over some facts and are trying to solve them. However, they informed Orissa POST that they will soon succeed in cracking the case.
The crime branch sleuths are convinced over the fact that Pothal had been under huge pressure due to familial disturbances between his mother and wife. Some of his office staffers also confirmed the rumored allegations of torture on him by his wife. However, the reason behind the torture is yet to be confirmed.
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