Bhubaneswar: A special police team has apprehended a youth accused of blackmailing a 20-year-old college girl, who died by alleged self-immolation in Odisha’s Kendrapada district on August 6.
According to sources, Pramod Behera aka Lipan of Terohi village under Pattamundai tehsil was nabbed from Chennai, where he was allegedly hiding following the incident, and is being brought to Kendrapada for questioning.
The victim’s family had alleged that the Plus III final-year student of political science set herself afire at her house in Badapada village following frequent blackmail threats from her former boyfriend with whom she parted ways about six months back after a two-year relationship. The youth had since been threatening to leak her photographs and had also given her death threats.
According to her parents, they had gone to the community health centre at Pattamundai at 7.30 am and found their daughter in a charred state when they returned home at around 11.30 am. Police said the body was found on the staircase of the house, indicating that the victim probably made a desperate bid to go to the terrace after setting herself on fire but could not open the door.
Six months ago, the girl’s father along with the sarpanch had also gone to the police station to lodge a complaint in this regard but police did not take any step to register a case and instead advised them to block the youth’s mobile number, the family further claimed.
Following this allegation, assistant sub-inspector of Pattamundai Rural police station Sailendra Mohan Palai was on Thursday transferred to the district police headquarters to ensure a free and fair investigation. Palei, however, claimed he was on leave during that period.
Meanwhile, a postmortem of the deceased girl was conducted at SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack on Thursday. The process was videographed.