Bhubaneswar: Even as a cyber team visited Kharvela Nagar police station to scrutinise all digital evidence, including his email, social media accounts, laptop and cellphone, Thursday saw another startling revelation in popular DJ from Odisha, Akshaya Maharana aka DJ Azex’s death case.
According to sources, he had a conversation with his rumoured girlfriend for around 97 seconds before his death. But he did not receive the video call which she made later. This has thrown up several questions pertaining to the circumstances leading to his death. Had Azex informed her about his plans to end his life? Was the video call meant to salvage the situation?
On Wednesday, some disturbing selfies of Azex had surfaced along with an email to his girlfriend, where he had mentioned that he was unable to sleep for past one week due to severe stress and had been taking sleeping pills.
Following questioning of his girlfriend, police suspected that he might have taken the extreme step following a break-up with her as she had reportedly mentioned about ending their relationship after coming to know about is alleged relationship with one of his female friends. The three also made a conference call to resolve the issue, the proof of which is in possession of police, sources said.
The deceased’s mother, however, rubbished it as a blatant lie. “My son was not in relationship with anyone, except her. She is lying,” she said. His sister also questioned her disappearance after Azex’s death if she had nothing to hide.
Meanwhile, Bhubaneswar DCP Prateek Singh said the probe is being carried out on basis of the complaint lodged by his mother. “The case is being investigated from all angles and a cyber crime team have been deployed to collect digital evidence. These evidence will help shed light on the circumstances leading to his death. All those linked to the victim are being questioned,” he added.
Notably, Azex’s postmortem report had revealed that he died due to asphyxiation. The body also bore some ligature marks.
Azex’s best friend Rahul had earlier blamed his death on a love triangle. He alleged that his girlfriend was in a relationship with another man and they were blackmailing him. But the video, which was allegedly being used to blackmail him, is yet to be traced.
According to his family members, Azex was inside his room when the city witnessed a thunderstorm on March 18. When he did not come out for a long time, they knocked on his door around 10 pm. When he did not answer their calls, they broke open the door and found him hanging.
He had last interacted with his family around 6.30 pm.
Azex has been working as a DJ for almost ten years. He has more than 90 thousand followers on Instagram.
