Asish Mehta
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar: Police are yet to solve the case in which a 25-year-old man has been missing since January 25. Rudranarayan Prusty, a junior engineer, went missing after he left his home on his motorcycle to meet his father Mahesh.
“Mahesh had been living away from his wife for 10 years. Rudranarayan used to visit his mother and father whenever he got leave. His two sisters are staying with their mother in Khandagiri area,” said sources.
Mahesh, who had been detained in connection with the case, had told police that his wife and two daughters were eyeing his property in the city and wanted to eliminate Rudranarayan so that he did not hand over the property to him.
However, the case took a twist when the bodies of Mahesh and his female friend, Bebina Mallick, a native of Paikarapur, were recovered from a garden at Soren under Khurda police limits February 14. Police had said Mahesh’s body was found hanging from a tree while Bebina’s body lay on the ground.
Rudranarayan’s family has written a letter to the crime branch urging it to find him, but the agency is yet to reply to their request. The family has alleged that Khandagiri police officials, who are still probing the case, have done a sloppy job so far.
Rudranarayan’s sister, Umarani Prusty, who had lodged a complaint with Khandagiri police, said the police officials were not properly pursuing the case of the mysterious disappearance of her brother. Umarani said that she had tried to meet police commissioner Yogesh Bahadur Khurania thrice in this connection but was on all three occasions asked to meet additional CP PS Ranpise.
Khandagiri police station inspector-in-charge Sarat Kumar Sahu denied the charge of not conducting a proper probe into the incident. Sahu told OrissaPOST Saturday that they had visited Kankadahad in Dhenkanal district, where Rudranarayan was posted, as part of investigations into the case.
“We went to Kankadahad and searched the house in which Rudranarayan was staying. Apart from a few documents and ATM cards, we were not able to find anything of importance,” Sahu said.
“We are following up the case along with the officials of the special squad whenever we are getting any clues,” he said.
Police have, with the help of dog squads, searched areas that Rudranarayan and his father used to visit together but have not got any clue about his whereabouts, according to sources.
“There is a strong possibility that Rudranarayan might be still alive and staying in some other part of the country,” said a source.
This is not the only case of a person being missing for long, with the police having no clue about his whereabouts. The several cases of missing persons have become a cause of concern for the state, especially as some of them have been missing for months now.
An average of 10 persons, including four children, go missing everyday in the state, according to information revealed at the National Conference on Anti-Human Trafficking held in October 2015 at New Delhi.
In 2012, as many as 7,955 people, including 910 minor boys and 2,601 minor girls, had gone missing in the state, according to the Orissa Police website. Of these, only 2,694 have been traced, leaving the police clueless about as many as 5,621.
One of these minors is a boy who was 12 years old when he went missing from Parjanga in Dhenkanal district December 1, 2012.
One of those who have been missing for long is a young girl from Daringbadi in Kandhamal district. The girl was 19 years old when she went missing January 4, 2010. The family has been living in hope since then and praying for her safe return.
This incident came little more than a month after a 50-year-old man went missing from Badasahi in Mayurbhanj district December 19, 2009.
