The Bhadrak police on Monday arrested a retired bureaucrat and former Public Relations Officer (PRO) to the Governor and Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), in connection with the kidnapping and murder of a cameraman.
The former Odisha Information Services officer, Niranjan Sethi, had retired in February as the Director (Technical) of the State Information and Public Relations Department.
“Prima facie evidence suggests that he (Sethi) was involved in the planning and execution of the murder. He was not present at the time of the abduction, but we have evidence that he was present at the the time of the murder. Based on this evidence, he was arrested on Monday,” Bhadrak Superintendent of Police Charan Meena said.
The cameraman, Manas Swain (28), was allegedly kidnapped on February 7 from outside a wedding venue in Bhadrak and later murdered in Bhubaneswar. The police are on the lookout for Sarmishtha Rout, owner/editor of a Bhubaneshwar-based web portal and fortnightly newspaper, Sampurna Odia. Swain worked with Rout’s web portal until three months ago when he began working as a freelance cameraman.
He was allegedly kept captive at an old age home in Bhubaneswar, which is also run by Rout. His body was found in a paddy field in Ranpur area of Nayagarh, police said.
As per preliminary investigation, Swain was a former employee of Rout and was in possession of a CPU chip that contained some controversial videos and photos related to her that she wanted back, the police said. The police, however, are unaware of the content of the chip.
Based on a complaint by Swain’s family members, the police had arrested three persons on March 12, who had confessed to killing him at the behest of Rout. Those arrested were Bhagyadhar Nayak, 26, Bebek Nayak, 19, and Krushna Chandra Nayak, 50.