Bhubaneswar: Police Thursday asserted that the death of Unmaya Padhi was a case of “pre-planned suicide” and not murder as suspected all along.
Unmaya’s partially burnt body was found on the Kuakhai riverbed on the outskirts of the city March 21.
Addressing a presser, Commissioner of Police YB Khurania revealed that both the post-mortem and forensic examination reports have confirmed that Unmaya had first stabbed and then immolated himself. He said that Unmaya might have planned and committed the suicide to implicate his ex-girlfriend who had earlier lodged an FIR against him with the Kharavela Nagar police.
Unamaya’s brother, Chinmaya, told the media he would approach the High Court praying for investigation by the crime branch as he was not satisfied with the police’s conclusion that it was a case of suicide. The Commisioner said, “The medical officers who had conducted the post-mortem said that the cause of death was shock as a result of burn injuries. Later, we referred the case to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar. We also shared all the evidence in our possession, including the post-mortem report and photographs with the Professor and the Head of the Department of Medical Toxicology.
“We sent the handwritten note found near Unmaya’s body to the Handwriting department for comparison with the handwriting of the deceased that we had collected,” he said.
He also claimed that the police examined and verified the evidence thoroughly. He said, “As per prima facie evidence, we thought it would be a murder case as a knife was found plunged into the body and so we registered a case under sections 302 and 201 of the IPC.”
However, later, during the course of investigation it was found that the unmarried Unmaya had got into a relationship with a much younger girl working in his office. The same lady lodged a complaint against Unmaya with the Kharavela Nagar police station alleging that he had posted many inappropriate photos of her on social media in 2017. He was in judicial custody after being arrested by the police in the case.
Subsequently, he lost his job with the company as well as his honour in society. He held a grudge against his ex-girlfriend and her lover and in order to take revenge he orchestrated a plan. As per the plan, he would end his life in a manner that would put both the girl and her lover under suspicion.
On the question of the knife found stabbed in his body, the Commissioner clarified that during stabbing a normal human being tries to defend himself and in the process some wound marks are left on the body. However, in the case of Unmaya, the final report did not mention any such marks. Moreover, Unmaya in his letter had claimed that the couple blackmailed him and also demanded money from him. He claimed that the money was withdrawn by the girl’s lover, but this was found to be false after investigation. Police informed that money was withdrawn from his account regularly by his brother and himself for different reasons.