BHUBANESWAR: The accused in cameraman Manas Swain murder case tortured him after he reportedly failed to recover a file from his former employer Sarmistha Rout’s computer, the Crime Branch investigation has revealed.
Manas had visited Palashpur village in Bhadrak district on February 6 to record videos of a wedding. He was going to Digachhia on a two-wheeler with one of his associates and a local on February 7 morning when five accused - Sarmistha, Jhuna Bhoi, Ranjan Nayak, Bhagyadhar Nayak and Bibek Nayak waylaid him.
Manas, a native of Nayagarh district, told them that he can recover a deleted file from Sarmistha’s computer. They took the cameraman to the office of Sarmistha, editor of Bhubaneswar based web-channel Sampurna, near Sundarpada area of the City.
He and Ranjan attempted to recover the file but failed. They then asked Manas to hand them over a memory chip having the same content which was deleted from Sarmistha’s computer. Retired Odisha Information Service (OIS) officer Niranjan Sethi also visited Sarmistha’s office on February 7 and assaulted the cameraman.
He was later taken to Dayal Ashram, a shelter home for elderly persons in the City run by Sarmistha, and was brutally thrashed. The accused found him dead on February 8 morning.
The Crime Branch officers said Manas was in possession of a memory chip having some ‘valuable’ content related to the accused. So far, the agency’s officers have found no trace of the missing memory card.
“We have not recovered any device of Manas. He was not staying in any particular location in Bhubaneswar and he kept on changing his places of stay for which it is a difficult task to recover any of his device. However, efforts are still on to trace his devices,” said a senior Crime Branch officer. Meanwhile, Chandbali JMFC court on Sunday allowed the agency to take Sarmistha and her associate Jhuna on three-day police remand for further questioning them in connection with the case.
The agency had earlier taken Sarmistha, Jhuna, Niranjan and Ranjan Nayak on five-day remand starting March 29. Niranjan and Ranjan were sent to judicial custody on Sunday after the end of their police remand.