The Commissionerate Police found the body of a Sub-Inspector (SI) of Police lying in a pool of blood with his throat slit open inside a room in the officers’ barrack of the Reserve Police opposite the Kalinga Stadium in the capital city here early on Monday morning. A knife was also found from the spot.
The deceased was identified as Abani Kumar Barik, an SI of the 2009 batch, working in the grievance cell of the headquarters of Commissionerate Police here. On being informed about the incident, a team of the Commissionerate Police, along with a scientific team, reached the barrack and conducted preliminary investigation into the circumstances leading to Barik’s death.
later, Barik’s body was sent to the Capital Hospital for autopsy to ascertain the actual reason behind his death. Preliminary investigation suggested that it was a case of suicide, Bhubaneswar DCP Satyabrata Bhoi said.
“The deceased was mentally disturbed, possibly due to family problems or some other issue. His service record was not good and he was punished several times for dereliction of duty during his tenure at Cuttack,” the DCP told the media.
The deceased’s brother Ashok Barik also said Abani was mentally disturbed and would often talk incoherently. “He would frequently have hallucination that he was being hounded and would say, “Why are you not killing meIJ” Ashok said.
Police have registered a case of unnatural death (U/D) in the incident and detained Barik’s three colleagues, who were staying with him at the barrack, for interrogation.