HC Seeks Odisha Govt Reply On Plea For CB Probe In Rourkela Officer's Death

Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has directed the state Home department and the Director General of Police (DGP) to respond to a petition, seeking a CID-Crime Branch or independent agency investigation into the 2023 unnatural death of Rourkela assistant collector Susmita Minj.

A single judge bench of Justice Chittaranjan Dash passed the order while hearing a writ petition filed by the victim’s brother, Sandeep Minj, who alleged that she was murdered and the local police did not take proper action ‘despite clear suspicions of foul play’.

The petitioner submitted that his sister went missing on September 16, 2023, and was later traced to a hotel in Rourkela and returned home, but three days later, her body was recovered from a waterbody. She was then working in the office of Rourkela additional district magistrate.

Despite his suspicion of foul play and demand for registration of an FIR, the police merely initiated an unnatural death (UD) case and did not proceed with a proper criminal investigation, he stated.

Subsequently, Minj moved the SDJM court in Rourkela seeking direction to register an FIR. However, the SDJM disposed of the application on February 22, 2024, citing the ongoing inquiry in the UD case and stating that the petitioner could pursue further legal remedies. Following which, he moved the High Court in June last year, seeking a probe by the state CID-Crime Branch into it.

THE TIMELINE

On September 19, 2023, the body of Susmita Minj was found floating in a pond in Sensory Park in the Plant Site police station area in Rourkela.

After Susmita’s family members claimed that she was murdered, the then SP (Rourkela) ordered a police probe into the unnatural death by a DSP-rank officer on September 28.

On October 17, 2023, Sandeep had filed a police complaint, accusing five senior district officials of mental harassment, resulting in her death. However, an FIR was not registered on the basis of his complaint.