Amid mounting pressure from the Opposition parties and a day after the mother of Asutosh Mohanty alias Rishi registered a formal appeal to the police for a reinvestigation into Rishi’s death, the Commissionerate police have recorded statements of Rishi’s four friends.
The statements of Subham Das, Sourav Nanda, Niranjan Mahant and Abinash Sahoo were recorded under Section of 161 CrPc at the Khandagiri police station.
Bhubaneswar Zone-III ACP Tapan Pattnaik, who is heading the investigation, recorded Subham’s statement on Monday while the three others’ statements had been recorded on Sunday night.
“We were close friends during Plus-II. As I was staying near the room where Rishi used to stay, the police asked me about the sequence of the incidents and how he died. As far as I know, he (Rishi) and one of his friends used to take drugs. The police also asked me about Rishi’s girlfriend,” said Subham after recording his statement.
He, however, denied any comment on the controversial sex video where a man having close resemblance of city Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena is found in a comprising position with a woman.
Meanwhile, the BJP, which held a two-hour Chaka Jam agitation in the areas of all urban local bodies (UlBs) across the State on Monday, called a 12-hour Bhubaneswar Bandh (6 am to 6 pm) on Wednesday demanding the Mayor’s resignation and a fair probe into the sensational video clip and Rishi’s death. However, trains and emergency services would not be within the ambit of the bandh. In another development, the Odisha Soochana Adhikar Abhijan, a RTI activists’ body, met Governor SC Jamir and submitted a memorandum to him demanding that the State Government be directed to order a CBI probe into the issues of the sex video and Rishi’s murder to bring the truth to the fore.
“There is something suspicious in the video clip and the mysterious death of Rishi. Influential people are involved in the sensational issues. Hence, a CBI probe can only unearth the truth,” said Abhijan State convenor Pradip Pradhan.