Malkangiri: Former Malkangiri Collector and IAS officer Manish Kumar Agarwal was granted bail by Malkangiri SDJM court in connection with the suspicious death of his Personal Assistant (PA) Deba Narayan Panda in the year 2019.
He surrendered in the court in the morning and complied with the Supreme Court’s directive to appear before the local court for bail hearing, his lawyer, Nrusingha Charana Mohanty said.
Agarwal was granted bail against two sureties of Rs 50,000 each. Last month, he was granted interim bail by the Supreme Court in connection with the death of his Personal Assistant (PA)
The case is related to the death of Deba Narayan Panda, Personal Assistant (PA) to the then Collector Manish Agarwal. Panda went missing on December 27, 2019, while on duty, and his body was recovered the next day from the Satiguda dam.
A post-mortem examination conducted by a team of doctors concluded that Panda’s death was due to ante-mortem drowning, with no signs of external injury or violence. However, Panda’s wife has alleged that her husband had visited the Collector’s residence on the day of the incident and never returned, raising suspicions about the circumstances surrounding his death.
On November 13, 2020, Panda’s wife lodged a complaint before the Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM), Malkangiri, holding Agarwal responsible for her husband’s death. The SDJM directed the police to register an FIR and conduct an investigation into the matter.
