Bhubaneswar: The police have launched a fresh investigation into the suspicious death of former minister Naba Das’ cook at Odisha’s Jharsuguda town in 2022.

The cops have interrogated two persons, one serving and one former household employee of the ex-minister, in connection with the death case.

The police in Jharsuguda had interrogated Hema Sagar Nayak, a household employee of the former health Minister, yesterday. They questioned Munu Prasad, a former employee at Naba Das’ house, in connection with the suspicious death of the former minister’s cook Lalit Sahu (22) at Jharsuguda in April 2022.

“I had joined as an employee at the residence of the former minister at Jharsuguda just two days before the death of the cook. I had worked for around one and a half months at Das’ house. The cook was found hanging from the ceiling at the staff quarters on April 17, 2022. I had brought down the body in the presence of the deceased’s family members and police,” said Munu Prasad to media persons.

The Jharsuguda police had then indicated Sahu’s death as a case of suicide and registered an unnatural death case. The cook’s postmortem was allegedly conducted hurriedly and his body was taken to his native place in Dhenkanal within a few hours.

The police launched a fresh probe into the death case after the deceased’s father recently claimed that it was a case of murder and urged the cops to take appropriate action in this regard.

It is worth mentioning here that Naba Das was shot dead, allegedly by a police ASI at Brajarajnagar, on January 29,2023.