Bhubaneswar: Burla Police have arrested Pritiman Dey in connection with death of BTech graduate of Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT) Chinmayee Priyadarshini Sahu.
He is facing charges of abbetment to suicide.
This followed a fresh probe into the case on the direction of Orissa High Court.
Chinmayee, a resident of Madanpur in Kalahandi district, was in Burla to attend the convocation ceremony at the institute on February 28, 2023, and later that evening went to the power channel bridge with a friend. She went missing after falling into the power channel and her body was fished out the following day.
Police had then detained Dey and Manas Tudu for questioning. They were also made to undergo lie detection test at the State Forensic Science Laboratory (SFSL).
Chinmayee’s postmortem report attributed her death to drowning. Her diatom test also confirmed the same. Following which, police then concluded that the incident was a case of suicide.
However, the deceased’s mother, Labanga Sahu, moved the court, alleging that she was murdered.
Labanga had earlier told the media that they suspected that Chinmayee was strangled to death and the body later dumped into the power channel since there were injury marks on her neck.
She also claimed to have heard an unusual sound similar to that of a person getting choked when she called her daughter around 9.20 pm to enquire whether she has boarded the bus for Bhubaneswar. She also questioned how Chinmayee’s mobile phone was recovered from Dey.
The then Leader of Opposition Jayanarayan Mishra had also alleged that police were trying to suppress the issue. It was also allaged Dey was then let go since his father was a senior factionary in the home department.