CUTTACK: A 41-year-old lady police inspector was found hanging inside her official restroom on the first floor of Chauliaganj police station on Saturday morning.
The deceased was identified as Beauty Mohanty, inspector in-charge (IIC) of Chauliaganj police station.
Police sources said she resided in the office quarter alone as her husband Samir Swain, a software engineer, stayed in Mumbai while her parents reside in Cuttack Sadar area.
Sources said Mohanty was earlier posted at the Mahila police station from where she was transferred to the Chauliaganj police station two months back. Before taking charge of Mahila police station, she was the IIC of Pahala and Markat Nagar police stations.
As per reports, she spent the night at the restroom on the first floor of the police station where she was found hanging. The staff of the police station raised suspicion when their repeated phone calls to Mohanty went unanswered. They then went to her restroom and knocked on the door but to no avail. On being informed, senior police officers reached the spot and broke open the door of the restroom only to find Mohanty hanging from the ceiling.
The body was brought down and sent to the SCB Medical College and Hospital for postmortem.
As per the staff of the police station, Mohanty completed her duty at around 9.30 pm on Friday and went to the room to take rest. They said she even skipped her dinner.
Additional DCP Amarendra Panda said a unnatural death case was registered and investigation is underway. “We conducted the postmortem after arrival of Mohanty’s husband,” he said.
Mohanty’s husband Swain said he had last spoken to her at around 10. 30 pm on Friday. “We did not have any dispute between us,” he said.
Speaking to mediapersons, police commissioner S Dev Datta Singh said Mohanty was professionally competent and also a physically and mentally strong woman. “She did not take her dinner on Friday night. Her domestic help said she had called Mohanty but the latter did not answer her calls,” he added.
Singh, however, ruled out any official pressure that could have pushed Mohanty into taking the drastic step. “Mohanty might have had some personal problem. However, she never shared it with us,” the police commissioner said adding, the call records are being analysed and thorough investigation is underway to ascertain the reason behind her taking the extreme step.
