Paralakhemundi: Bidya Bharati Panda, wife of deceased Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF) Soumya Ranjan Mohapatra, was on Monday remanded to judicial custody for 13 days after she surrendered before the Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM) Court in Paralakhemundi.
The court rejected her bail application and remanded her to judicial custody, her lawyer Sisir Kumar Jena said.
The development came two days after the Orissa High Court rejected her anticipatory bail plea on October 31. She had moved the High Court seeking protection from arrest in connection with the case.
The case dates back to July 11, 2021, when Soumya Ranjan, then serving as an ACF in Paralakhemundi in Odisha’s Gajapati district, sustained nearly 80 per cent burn injuries under mysterious circumstances at his official residence. He was initially admitted to a hospital and later shifted to Cuttack for advanced treatment, but succumbed to his injuries.
On July 14, 2021, his family lodged a complaint alleging murder and naming his wife Bidya Bharati Panda, the then Gajapati Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Sangram Behera and cook Manmath Kumbha as accused.
In view of the sensitivity of the case, the Odisha government handed over the investigation to the Crime Branch in August 2021.
Bidya Bharati’s surrender comes more than five years after the incident, which had triggered widespread attention across Odisha over the circumstances surrounding the ACF’s death.
