9 Days On, Police Yet to Crack Ex-VSSUT Student Chinmayee’s Death Mystery

Balangir: Two days after Sambalpur SP B Gangadhar ruled out murder in VVSUT alumna Chinmayee Sahoo death case, a team of police from Burla visited her residence in Odisha’s Balangir on Thursday.

They have started interrogating her parents regarding her death and are looking into various other angles, sources said.

Earlier a police team had searched Chinmayee’s rented room at BJB Nagar in Bhubaneswar and seized her laptop and bag, besides some other documents.

It may be noted here that Chinmayee’s father Dr Banamali Sahoo and her mother Labani Sahoo had expressed unhappiness over the police investigation even as the postmortem report revealed that she had died due to drowning. “There is no hope or trust in the police investigation, which seems to be one-sided. All possible ways are being explored to save the accused,” they had alleged

Her mother suspected involvement of Pritiman Dey, one of her classmates, in her mysterious death. Her body was retrieved on March 1 after it was alleged that she had jumped into the Power Channel the previous evening when she attended the convocation ceremony at VSSUT, Burla.

What baffled them was how her phone was found with Pritiman. It was alleged that he had accompanied her to the Power Channel.

The SP, however, earlier claimed that no one was present on the Power Channel bridge when the incident took place. “All the technical evidence support drowning as the cause of death. If we consider circumstantial evidence, no intention has been established yet. So it is not murder,” he added

Pritiman along with the other suspect, Manas Tudu, were also released but asked to stay put in Burla after the lie detection test revealed no discrepancies in their statement.

Chinmayee had completed her BTech in Information Technology from VSSUT recently and was in Burla on February 28 to receive her degree during the convocation. She was supposed to return in the evening. At 10pm, it was found that she allegedly jumped into the power channel. The body was retrieved the following morning.