Burla: Even as police ruled out murder in VVSUT, Burla, alumna Chinmayee Priyadarshini Sahoo’s death case, father of her detained male friend, Pritiman Dey, on Tuesday asserted that his son was innocent.
“Police had summoned me to hand over the custody of my son. They have asked us to stay in Burla for 7 days and visit police station whenever required. I am 100% sure that my son is innocent,” his father Pranab Kumar Dey told the media.
Meanwhile, Sambalpur SP B Gangadhar said that the BTech graduate died due to drowning. “After analysing the statements of students, eyewitnesses, WhatsApp messages, CCTV footage and especially the postmortem report, it is quite evident that the drowning was the cause of her death.”
The SP further said that no one was present on the Power Channel bridge when the incident took place. “All the technical evidence support drowning as the cause of death. If we consider circumstantial evidence, no intention has been established yet. So it is not murder,” he said.
Gangadhar informed that the CCTV footage revealed that they were in intoxicated condition. “The viscera report will shed more light on it. We will also send digital evidence for physiological autopsy,” he stated.
The investigation is now focussed on whether it was an accident or an act of negligence on the part of any person or a case of abetment to suicide, he added.
Sharing information about the lie-detection test reports, he said, “No deceit to response was noticed in the lie-detection test reports of both the suspects – Pritiman Dey and Manas Tudu. If required, narco test will be carried out.”
Both Pritiman and Manas have been released on 160 bond and after giving an undertaking that they will cooperate in the investigation.
Chinmayee had completed her BTech in Information Technology from VSSUT recently and was in Burla on February 28 to receive her degree during the convocation. She was supposed to return in the evening. At 10pm, it was found that she allegedly jumped into the power channel. The body was retrieved the following morning.
