BERHAMPUR: Yet to make any headway into the mysterious death Paralakhemundi Assistant Conservator of Forest (ACF) Soumya Ranjan Mohapatra, Gajapati police now plans to quiz DFO Sangram Keshari Behera for clues.
Gajapati SP Tapan Patnaik, who is supervising the case, on Wednesday informed that police are planning to interrogate Sangram at an appropriate time.
“Since the DFO’s name has been mentioned in the FIR, he will be questioned in due time. A cyber expert has been roped in by the Crime Branch team to examine call details of the DFO, the deceased ACF and his wife Bidya Bharati Panda,” the SP said.
Besides, OIC of Gurandi police station Mamata Panda, who happens to be the sister-in-law of Bidya, will also be questioned as to why the ambulance carrying Soumya was stopped midway and the reason for her presence at the spot without instructions from the police department.
The OIC was seen in uniform besides Bidya at the district headquarters hospital in Parlakhemundi but refused to comment.
Patnaik said investigation into the incident is underway from all angles. While the dying declaration of the ACF has been video-recorded, his postmortem report is awaited. On the day, police released the copy of a handwritten letter of Bidya which was seized from the quarters of the ACF.
The letter read, “I hate you the most in the world. I hate this man. Even hate combine my name with his. I spoiled my life for all my stupid decisions.”
Bidya has reportedly told police that she wrote the letter after knowing about her husband’s extra-marital affair to express her sorrow. The note has no relevance with his death, she claimed. Earlier, Bidya had accused her husband of infidelity.
Meanwhile, the police team which had left for Balasore and Mayurbhanj districts to quiz family members of Soumya and Bidya, returned to Paralakhemundi.
Soumya was rescued from his government quarters in Paralakhemundi with 90 per cent burns on June 11 night. He succumbed to injuries at a private hospital in Cuttack the next day.