Bhadrak: In a major crackdown, the prime accused Sarmistha Rout and her close associate Jhuna Bhoi in alleged murder of cameraman Manas Swain were arrested Monday by a joint team of Odisha Crime Branch (CB) and local police from Nalanga village of Bhadrak district.
Sarmistha had remained on the run for more than one month.
Key accused Sarmistha and her associate Jhuna will be produced in the Court of Judicial Magistrate First Class (JFMC) at Chandbali in the district later in the day, the CB mentioned in a press release.
“Crime Branch will move court seeking at least a ten-day remand for Sarmistha and her associate, including six more persons arrested earlier in connection with the murder,” a senior official informed.
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It is pertinent to mention here that the probing-team is yet to unravel the mystery behind a memory chip over which the cameraman is believed to have been killed. Interestingly, a friend of him has Friday disclosed the content of the tiny semiconductor device.
A five-member team of Crime Branch probing the alleged kidnap and murder Friday visited the kidnapping site at Palaspur village under Chandbali police limits in Bhadrak and quizzed a few villagers.
Swain was kidnapped in a car February 7 by his former employer Sarmistha and some of her associates when he had earlier come to the village for videographing a wedding ceremony.
It is said that Swain was asked to return the memory chip and was severely beaten up prior to his death. Later, the accused took his body and buried it at a hill located in Ranpur of Nayagarh district.
Previously, police had arrested six persons including the OIS officer and former director of state I&PR department Niranjan Sethi, his associate Ranjan Nayak, Bhagyadhar, Vivek, Krushna Chandra and Sarmistha’s brother Parameswar Rout in connection with the case.
The lensman Swain was a resident of Godipokhari village in Ranpur area of Nayagarh district. He was working for the Bhubaneswar-based web channel run by Sarmistha.
PNN