Top VSP official found murdered in Odisha capital

Reported by Santosh Jagdev

Bhubaneswar, Jan 5:

Commissionerate Police recovered the body of a senior official of the Vizag Steel Plant (VSP) near the Hanuman mandir behind Sainik School in VSS Nagar area under Saheed Nagar police of Odisha’s capital city early this morning.

The deceased was identified as I Shyama Prasad Rao of Vishakhapatnam posted as AGM (Finance) at VSP.

On being informed by locals about the body lying on the road, Saheed Nagar police along with a scientific team, rushed to the spot. The body was later taken to the Capital Hospital for autopsy to ascertain the real cause of his death.

However, the injury marks on Rao’s body point to a possible murder, police said.

Investigating officer  Biswajit Monobodha said an air ticket was found on his person, which reveals the address of the deceased address and the purpose of his visit to Bhubaneswar. “We have registered an U/D case and investigation is on,” he said.

“Rao arrived from Vizag last evening and checked into a hotel here. We have found that he talked to his son back in Vizag at 10.42 pm last night. The incident obviously happened after that. As per our preliminary investigation, we suspect it to be a case of professional rivalry leading to murder,” Bhubaneswar DCP Satyabrata Bhoi said.

Meanwhile, Rao’s sons I Umashankar, a software engineer based in Bangalore, and I Balgangadhar have reached here. While Umashankar arrived in the afternoon, Balgangadhar reached late in the evning.

Both brothers were taken to the special squad office at the Commissionerat police for questioning in connection with the murder of the VSP executive.

“My father had come to Bhubaneswar to see a prospective bride for my younger brother I Balgangadhar,” a distraught Umashankar told media persons.

A team of commissionerate police officers left for Vishakhapatnam this evening to find clues to the murder.