Plea For CID-CB Probe: HC Asks For Case Records In Rourkela Assistant Collector’s Death

Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has asked for case records on the unnatural death of assistant collector Susmita Minj, whose body was found floating in a pond at Sensory Park in Rourkela on September 19, 2023.

The single judge bench of V Narasingh sought the case records while hearing a petition seeking a direction for a CID-Crime Branch investigation into her unnatural death.

In June, Susmita’s brother Sandeep Minj had filed the petition through advocate Shivsankar Mohanty, alleging that police neither registered an FIR nor properly investigated his complaint even though eight months had passed since her death.

While post-mortem report attributed Susmita’s death to drowning, controversy erupted when her family alleged foul play in the death. She was working in the office of the Rourkela additional district magistrate and was missing for nearly four days before her body was found floating in the pond.

Sandeep, in his police complaint, had accused five senior district officials of ‘mental harassment, resulting in the woman officer’s death’. The Adivasi Mahila Morcha and Odisha BJP Mahila Morcha had demanded a CBI probe into her death.

Following the outcry, a DSP rank officer was assigned to investigate the case.