VSSUT former student Chinmayi died of drowning, confirms diatom report

Chinmayi Priyadarshini Sahoo, a former student of Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT), died of drowning, confirmed the diatom report on Saturday.

Earlier the post-mortem report had also highlighted drowning as the cause of death. It may be recalled that Chinmayi, a student of the Information Technology department of VSSUT, Burla in Sambalpur had attended the University’s convocation program on February 28.

Later, she had gone to the Power Channel bridge in Burla with her friend and reportedly went missing after falling into the channel. Her body was fished out on March 1. The family members of Chinamyi alleged that she had been murdered as there were some injury marks around her neck region.

Also Read: VSSUT student death: Now focus is to find out if there any abetment to suicide, says Sambalpur SP

Sambalpur SP B. Gangadhar said that it is being investigated whether Chinmayi committed suicide or she was pushed into the water body or it was an accident. “The death is due to drowning and our investigation is underway to ascertain several other aspects. If needed we will also conduct Narco test of the suspects. We have collected digital evidence from laptops, mobile phone chats and other documents.”

While addressing a presser, the Sambalpur SP had earlier informed that the post-mortem report had also mentioned drowning as the cause of death.

"Now our investigation is focused on ascertaining whether it was a suicidal drowning or murder. We have collected CCTV footage from various locations to examine if there is any evidence that they had any problem,” he had said.

Meanwhile, the two suspects, including the male friend of deceased Chinmayi were released on bond after interrogation.

(Reported by Sanjay Jena)