Balasore: A Block Development Officer (BDO) was found hanging in his official residence in Odisha’s Balasore district on Thursday.
As per reports, Simulia BDO Biswa Ranjan Mohanty, had gone to his office in the morning and did his official works. He came back to his official residence in the afternoon to have lunch.
Following the lunch break, Mohanty was scheduled to attend an official meeting on video-conference in his chamber. As he did not turn up for the meeting, the employees of his office went to his residence to enquire about him.
They found his house locked from inside and knocked on the doors. After repeated knocking, there was no response from Mohanty. Suspecting something foul, the employees broke open the front door to find him hanging from ceiling fan in his bedroom.
On being informed a team from Simulia police station went to Mohanty’s residence and sent the body for postmortem. They have registered a case of unnatural death and started investigation. Simulia IIC Swarnalata Minz said it is believed that the BDO died by suicide. However, the exact cause of his death can be ascertained after postmortem.
Meanwhile, the BDO’s father Narendra Mohanty has alleged that his son committed suicide due to heavy work pressure. He said Biswa had joined as Simulia BDO around two months back. Since then, he had not gone to his village as the district collector did not grant him leave.
Refuting the allegation, Balasore collector Dattatraya Bhausaheb Shinde said the BDO had last applied for leave on November 10 which was granted. He did not apply for any leave thereafter.
Biswa was supposed to retire from service after two and a half years. Before his posting in Simulia, Mohanty served as the BDO of Gopabandhunagar in Mayurbhanj district.
