The State Government on Wednesday ordered a Crime Branch (CB) probe into the death of Rayagada District Welfare Officer (DWO) Dhaneswar Prusty, who committed suicide in his office room on Tuesday. “We have received a communication from the Government about the Crime Branch investigation into the case,” Rayagada SP K Shiva Subramani said.
The SP said a suicide note has been recovered by the scientific team which inspected Prusty’s house on Wednesday. He said the late DWO in his suicidal note named the District Collector and the ITDA PA as responsible for his death. “We have sent it to the forensic laboratory to verify its genuineness,” Subramani said.
Meanwhile, a large number of Congress workers gheraoed the Rayagada police station demanding immediate arrest of Collector Sashi Bhusan Padhi and Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) Project Administrator (PA) Gorachand Gamang.
“We will continue agitation until the corrupt Collector has not been arrested. We will organise a bandh in Rayagada on Friday if he is not arrested by then,” said Rayagada district Congress president Durga Prasad Panda.
Deceased DWO’s wife Kamini Sahu lodged an FIR at the Rayagada Town police station alleging that her husband committed suicide due to mental harassment meted out to him by the Collector and the ITDA PA. Notably, Prusty had recently been elevated to the post of DWO. During his four-month stint as DWO, he was transferred twice.
“It is an unbelievable incident as Prusty was a very simple and duty-bound officer,” said some office staff on condition of anonymity. Prusty left behind him two daughters, who are married, and a son, who is still unemployed.
Meanwhile, the State Assembly was adjourned four times in the day as Congress members created kept demanding immediate arrest of the Rayagada Collector and ITDA PA.
They also demanded a statement on the issue from the Chief Minister. Opposition Chief Whip Tara Prasad Bahinipati raised the issue during the Zero Hour. Bahinipati along with his Congress colleagues rushed into the Well of the House and continued demanding a statement from the Government on the issue and action against the Collector and the ITDA PA.
Normalcy was restored in the House only at 3.32 pm after the Speaker asked Bahinipati to give his complaint in writing so that the issue would be considered on Thursday.