Bhubaneswar: The woman, who was seen walking ahead of senior journalist Navin Das’s son Manish Anurag in the CCTV footage, has reportedly been identified as the girlfriend of one of his friends. The details surfaced during the interrogation of detained persons, police sources said.
These are reportedly the last visuals of Manisha, whose body was recovered from a pond at Patrapada a few hours later on October 13. He was captured walking on the road outside Hotel South City in the area, on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar with a woman a few metres ahead of him. The footage is said to have been caged at 3.29 am.
The sources, however, said that there is no clear evidence that Manish died after drowning. The preliminary post-mortem report had attributed his death to respiratory arrest.
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Earlier in the day, there were reports about an alleged altercation between Manish and his friends over the bill payment at Hotel South City in Patrapada. The staff of the bar took away his phone amid the argument over who would pay the bill amounting to Rs 35,000. Besides threatening him, the bouncers had also pushed Manish, who subsequently paid the whole amount after asking for money from his family.
After paying the bill, he walked out of the hotel and was captured on the CCTV. Police are trying to ascertain the sequence of events that took place after this, leading to his death, the sources added.
Meanwhile, the Commisionerate Police are questioning the two accused, identified as Mrutyunjay Mishra and Dinesh Mohapatra, who surrendered at Phulbani police station in Kandhamal district on Wednesday. Another person, who had allegedly accompanied Manish in a car, has also been detained.
