Bhubaneswar: The body of a youth was found hanging from a mess near Acharya Vihar Square under Sahid Nagar police station here Thursday. The deceased was identified as Anjan Mallick, 21, a resident of Pattamundai area in Kendrapara district.
Although the exact cause of the death is yet to be ascertained, some of his co-staffers said that he committed suicide over a failed love affair while his family members term it as a case of murder.
According to sources, Mallick was working as a cooking helper at the mess kitchen of the employees of a bar ‘Kachapani’ near Maharaja Cinema Hall. He had been staying in the mess for the last one-and-half months. The employees of the bar were staying in a room behind the bar along with Mallick.
Wednesday night, he allegedly told his fellow inmates that he would sleep separately in an adjacent room which was objected by the staffers. However, Mallick insisted on it and slept in that room only. When the inmates knocked at the door and called him Thursday morning, he did not respond.
They informed the owner of the bar who reached the mess and entered the room through a door that connects the bar to the kitchen and mess. They were shocked to find Mallick hanging from the ceiling fan of the room with a towel.
The staffers said that Mallick was reportedly in love with a married woman much older than him. He used to chat with the woman over phone. His colleagues claimed that failure in love might have prompted him to take the extreme step.
Meanwhile, his relatives alleged that Mallick was murdered by the bar staffers. They have lodged a complaint with the Sahid Nagar Police in this regard. His mother Manjulata Mallick told the police that the bar authorities had verbally abused her son and tortured him when he approached them to quit the job. Police sources claimed that the post mortem report will reveal the cause of the death but initial probe is hinting at suicide. Post mortem of the body, which has been kept in the morgue of Capital Hospital, will be conducted Friday.
