Rourkela: A man who made a self-immolation bid on Uditnagar police station premises here succumbed to his burn injuries at the Ispat General Hospital (IGH) in the wee hours of Tuesday.
Prabhakar Nayak (40) alias Jhabu of Basanti Colony here set him on fire after pouring petrol over himself. He was rushed to the IGH where he died at 3am despite best efforts by the doctors. It is suspected that Nayak might have taken the extreme step over his alleged relationship with the wife of a constable posted in the office of the superintendent of police.
The incident triggered tension in the area as lawyers and his family members questioned Nayak’s self-immolation bid in the presence of police officials in the police station. They refused to receive the body from the morgue for cremation demanding the suspension of the Uditnagar police station IIC and the arrest of the woman in question. They urged the authorities to unravel the mystery surrounding Nayak’s death.
Later, in the afternoon family members accompanied by bar association president Ramesh Bal and its general secretary Raj Kishore Pradhan visited the SP’s office and demanded a high-level probe into his death.
Additional superintendent of police (ASP) Subhas Chandra Jamadar and DSP Subhas Chandra Panigrahi met the family members and lawyers in the absence of the SP and held talks with them.
However, the aggrieved family members and the lawyers insisted on fulfillment of their demand and refused to budge from their stand.
Later, Jamadar announced to handover the probe to DSP Ramesh Chandra Panigrahi posted at Uditnagar police station. However, that also failed to assuage the feelings of the bereaved family who insisted on handing over the probe to any other senior police officer other than Panigrahi.
Left with no option, Jamadar finally handed over the investigation to DSP Kailash Chandra Nayak of the Human Rights Protection Cell here. However, Nayak’s elder brother Pradip Kumar Nayak and his younger brother Prakash Nayak refused to take the body from morgue till the constable’s wife was arrested.
All attempts by the senior police officials to placate them failed to yield any result as they remained resolved to their demand. PNN