Jail warder’s negligence resulted in Gobinda Sahu’s death: DIG Prisons

Shedding more light on the already murkier Gobinda Sahu death case, Headquarters Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Prisons, Subhakanta Mishra has held the on-duty warder of Kantabanji jail solely responsible in the case.

The warder was suspended with immediate effect by Mishra.

However, whether Sahu was suffering from depression will be ascertained after examining all the reports, he said.

Speaking to OTV, DIG Mishra said, “Prima facie, this seems to be a case of blatant negligence by the jail warder. The jail has an area of 2 acres and it is not easy to keep an eye on everyone all the time. But the warder should have watched Sahu’s movement in the jail.”

As per Mishra, Sahu was an amicable person and had good relationship with all jail officials and prisoners. “Sahu hanged himself with a towel from a tree on the backside of the jail kitchen. Some prisoners saw him and called for help, after which the warder reached the spot and found him hanging,” Mishra said.

Interestingly, the back side of the jail kitchen where Sahu had reportedly hanged himself is out of the CCTV surveillance in jail and isn’t covered by any closed circuit cameras.

Meanwhile, the Northern Range DIG of Police refuted reports of Mamita Meher’s DNA not matching with her parents.

Speaking to reporters, Northern Range DIG, Deepak Kumar said, “Claims of Mamita’s DNA not matching with her parents is completely false. Some burnt portions of bones were recovered during the crime scene recreation with accused Gobinda Sahu. We had sent the burnt bones to the CDFD because there is no facility for mitochondrial DNA testing in Odisha. The bone was burnt too much, that is why even the CDFD failed to obtain the nuclear DNA from the sample.”

It is pertinent to mention here that Gobinda Sahu’s lawyer had said the DNA’s Mamita Meher and her parents do not match, alleging the bone recovered from the crime scene does not belong to Mamita.

On the other hand, the wife of Gobinda Sahu has brought murder allegations to the fore.

Speaking to the media, she alleged, Sahu has been murdered. "He was a mentally strong person. He can never take such a step," she said.

She further alleged that a proper plan was hatched to eliminate Gobinda Sahu to destroy all the evidence related to the Mamita Meher murder case.

(Reported By Alok Mohanty, OTV)