Ex-OIS officer held in Manas Swain murder case
Ex-OIS officer held in Manas Swain murder case
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Bhubaneswar: Niranjan Sethi, the former Director (Technical) of Odisha's Information and Public Relations (I&PR) Department, has been arrested for allegedly abducting and murdering cameraman Manas Swain.
In addition to the former OIS officer, Bhadrak Police arrested Ranjan Nayak alias Raj on Monday in connection with the case.
Sethi worked as an additional director until being appointed to the job in 2020. (I&PR). He had also served as the Chief Minister's and Governor's press secretary. He retired from the government at the end of February.
With this arrest, the total number of people arrested in connection with the gruesome murder of the cameraman has risen to five.
In connection with the murder, police are looking for Sarmistha Rout, the owner of a Bhubaneshwar-based web channel where Swain used to work.
Swain, 28, went missing from a wedding location in Bhadrak on February 7, and his body was discovered on March 12 in the Ranpur area of Nayagarh district.
Bhagyadhar Nayak (26), Bebek Nayak (19), and Krushna Chandra Nayak (50), who were arrested on March 12, confessed to killing Swain at Sarmistha's Dayal Ashram in Bhubaneswar and burying his body in the Ranapur region of Nayagarh to erase evidence, according to police sources.
According to preliminary research, Sarmistha conspired to kill him because he had some contentious recordings and images that could have gotten her in trouble, and Sethi was a part of the plot.
