Police in search of Jessy over Raja’s death

Read here: Tele Odia Actress Jessy Arrested For Abetting Raja To Commit Suicide

CUTTACK: While mystery continues to shroud the death of Odia actor and choreographer Ranjit Patnaik alias Raja, the Odisha police have launched a search operation to catch a television serial actress Jessy, who is evasive since police have summoned her to appear before it.

According to sources, Soro police, which is investigating the actor’s murder, on Friday summoned Jessy to appear before it by 8 pm failing which it is likely to issue a warrant against her.

The Soro police in Balasore have summoned three- actress Pralipta Priyadarshani Samal alias Jessi, programme coordinator Pralay Jena and car driver Dhaneswar-to appear before it and record their statement over the death of Odia actor Raja on Wednesday.

As no one turned up on that day, the police conducted raids and Jena and Dhaneswar were detained and interrogated while police failed to trace Jessi on Thursday.

Now, the police are conducting raids at different locations to trace out the whereabouts of the television actress Jessy, who was not present in her house.

Inspector-in-charge of Soro police Parsuram Sahu said three teams carried out the raids in the early hours of Thursday. A team led by Sahu and sub-inspector Mandakini Mohanty raided Jessi’s rented house at Shaktinagar in Cuttack but found the actress, her parents and her brother missing.

“Since Jessi remains evasive, we will continue the raids to trace her,” Sahu added.

The investigation so far has revealed that it could be a case of suicide or accident. The case is wide open, and we are investigating other angles too, Sahu added.

While search at various locations to locate the television actress has failed to yield any results, Jessy is said to have gone into hiding, and her mobile phone was switched off.

The police expect that they will get more information about the death of the Odia actor after catching Jessy, who was in a relationship with Raja.

The three persons had accompanied the actor in a car on a fateful night.

On Thursday, Pralay and Dhaneswar were brought to Soro police station and grilled about the circumstances leading to Raja’s death. Police, however, failed to extract anything new or significant from them.

Police then took the duo to Chaparpada Bridge over Kansabansa River where the incident took place. Jena repeated his earlier statements, saying a heated argument had ensued between Raja and Jessi while returning in the car and that Jessi had attempted suicide by jumping off the car. Raja had got down from the car on the pretext of attending nature’s call and had started running, said Jena.

When they searched for Raja some time later, his body was found lying under the bridge, he said.

Raja was taken to Bhadrak hospital in an ambulance and later shifted to SCB Medical College and Hospital (SCBMCH), added Jena. Asked about why they ran away from SCBMCH leaving Raja’s body there, Jena said he was there till 8 am, but he did not come before Raja’s grieving family members.