Body of theft accused who gave Cuttack cops a slip fished out from Mahanadi river

The body of the theft accused, who fled from the custody of Cantonment police station yesterday, was recovered from Mahanadi near Jobra barrage on Saturday. The deceased has been identified as Sankarshan Behera alias Bablu.

Following the recovery of the body, his family members were informed and they later identified him to be Bablu.

As per initial reports, Bablu was brought to the police station in connection with a theft case. During interrogation, he shoved some police personnel and escaped from the police station on Friday.

Family members alleged that the cops had picked up Bablu three days back despite not being involved in any case. After initially keeping him at Bidanasi Police Station, he was shifted to Cantonment Police Station. The family members further alleged that Bablu escaped from their custody without being able to bear the torture anymore.

“My brother’s (Bablu) body was floating in the river for several hours. Many people have seen it. But when his wife asked the police, they lied to her saying that Bablu was taken to the hospital for a check-up,” said the sister of the deceased.

Asked about the incident, ACP Amitabh Mohapatra said, “We will conduct a probe to ascertain under what circumstances the accused escaped from custody. Action will be taken based upon the findings in the inquiry.”

Cuttack DCP, Pinak Mishra said, "We will have to know the sequence of events first before arriving on any conclusion. Investigation will be done as per the NHRC guidelines. As the youth escaped from Police Station, we are treating it as custodial death. The investigation will be done by an ADCP rank officer & CCTV footage will be examined to ascertain under what circumstances the youth escaped."

The video of Bablu wading through deep waters following his escape from custody had earlier gone viral on social media.