The deceased have been identified as Sanadhara Bhatra of Pujariguda and Priyanka Gond of a nearby village.

According to sources, Sanadhara was a contractual employee of the pump house. Locals found the door of the pump house locked from inside. On peeping in through a window, they found the duo hanging from a single rope.

It is being suspected that the two were in a relationship and died by suicide.

Police have recovered the bodies for postmortem and begun a probe into the matter to ascertain as to why they took the extreme step.

According to sources, simultaneous searches are also underway at properties linked to Delhi-based Golden Land Developers Limited and houses of the its director, manager and other officials in Odisha.

In 2013, the Delhi-based firm was booked in six cases for cheating depositors to the tune of several crores. The Crime Branch had seized some assets of this chit fund company and Cuttack ADM auctioned landed property of the chit-fund company to the tune of 2 acres and 93 decimal in Chhatrapur and Chikiti tehsils of Ganjam district, respectively, in June 2016. Around 4.72 lakh applicants have applied to the state government for refund of their money.

No casualty or injury was reported as all patients, including pregnant and lactating women and newborns, were immediately shifted from the floor, sources said.

“I got information about the fire around midnight and immediately Fire Service personnel were called in to douse the flames. All patients are safe,” ADMO Ranjan Mitra told the media.

He further said that an attendant rushed on hearing a call bell installed besides beds on the floor. “When the patient denied having pressed the bell, the attendant realised that it could be due to a short circuit. Soon, they spotted a fire and the department was engulfed in smoke,” the ADMO added.

Prima facie, it appears that the fire broke out due to an electric short circuit though the actual cause is yet to be ascertained. Further probe is underway.

According to sources, a group of people including women and children were going sitting in the trolley of the tractor to offer puja in the Ram Mandir. As the road to the temple atop a hill is narrow and curvy, the tractor driver lost balance while making a turn.

As the tractor overturned, the people in the trolley were thrown to the ground. At least 15 of them sustained injuries in the mishap. The locals rushed them to a hospital at Bhapur. Later, some of them were shifted to Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar.

Coinciding with “Prana Pratistha” of idols in Ram temple at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, a ceremony to mark the inauguration of a Ram Temple will be held at Fatehgarh village in Bhapur area of Nayagarh district on Monday.

The rituals for the consecration of the new temple began on Wednesday with Ankuropan and a Kalash Yatra was held on Thursday. The temple stands atop 1800 feet high hill amid scenic surroundings.

As per reports, mining officer Jagan Behera was informed about illegal mining of laterite stones at Gudam on the outskirts of Khurda. Behera informed the police and rushed to the spot along with some officials.

He told the people engaged in extraction of the stones to stop the mining and produce official permission for mining. But the latter attacked him with mining equipment and also damaged his official car.

However, the police reached there in time and rescued Behere. The mining officer was rushed to district headquarters hospital at Khurda. Later, he was shifted to a private hospital in Bhubaneswar. Police have filed a case in this regard.

Though the assailants managed to escape from the spot, the police have detained two persons on suspicion and are questioning them about involvement of others in the attack.

The police have also started conducting raids on different places in the town and nearby areas to trace the attackers and the people engaged in illegal stone mining.

As per reports, Simulia BDO Biswa Ranjan Mohanty, had gone to his office in the morning and did his official works. He came back to his official residence in the afternoon to have lunch.

Following the lunch break, Mohanty was scheduled to attend an official meeting on video-conference in his chamber. As he did not turn up for the meeting, the employees of his office went to his residence to enquire about him.

They found his house locked from inside and knocked on the doors. After repeated knocking, there was no response from Mohanty. Suspecting something foul, the employees broke open the front door to find him hanging from ceiling fan in his bedroom.

On being informed a team from Simulia police station went to Mohanty’s residence and sent the body for post-mortem. They have registered a case of unnatural death and started investigation.

Meanwhile, the BDO’s father Narendra Mohanty has alleged that his son committed suicide due to heavy work pressure. He said Biswa had joined as Simulia BDO around two months back. Since then, he had not gone to his village as the district collector did not grant him leave.

On the other hand, the collector refuted the allegation and said the BDO had never applied for leave since his posting in Simulia. Biswa was supposed to retire from service after two and a half years.

According to sources, the explosion took place when the security forces were combing the area following information about presence of Maoists in the forest. “The jawans have sustained minor injuries in the blast,” said Boudh SP Raj Prasad.

While two teams have been sent to rescue the injured jawans, combing operation has been intensified in the region, he added.

A similar incident was reported from Sirla jungle in Kandhamal districts on December 24, 2023, in which two SOG jawans sustained injuries while conducting a combing operation to flush out Maoists from their hideouts. One of the jawans suffered splinter injuries in one of his eyes and was admitted to AIIMS Bhubaneswar while the other received injuries in his hand.

As per reports, the tourists from the neighbouring state had come in a car on a visit to Panchalingeswar temple in the district. After offering puja in the temple, they were going to Devkund in Mayurbhanj district.

When they reached Kalakad on Nilagiri-Udala state highway 19, their car had head-on collision with another car coming from opposite direction. All the five tourists were seriously injured in the accident.

The local people rushed them to sub-divisional hospital at Nilagiri. Later, two of them were shifted to Balasore district headquarters hospital as their condition deteriorated. On being informed, police went to the accident spot and started investigation.

It may be noted that this is second accident on the narrow state highway in the last two weeks. In the last mishap, a biker was killed in collision with another vehicle.

As per preliminary reports, the body was lying in a pool of blood at Telnadi village under the jurisdiction of Umekote police station in the district on Saturday.

The deceased, identified as Ramsing Jani of nearby Daumal village was suspected to have been stoned to death by some unknown miscreants. Ramsing was on a visit to someone’s house at Telnadi village as a guest along with his wife.

Similarly, one Naresh Dharua and his wife Bhagwati from Niana village had also come to Telnadi village. Both Ramsing and Naresh had left home to consume liquor on December 21. However, Ramsing did not return till late evening the next day.

The worried family members launched a frantic search and Ramsing’s body was recovered from near the nullah on Saturday morning.

While Ramsing’s wife alleged that he was murdered, the exact reason would be ascertained only after a thorough probe. Senior police officials rushed to the spot along with scientific team and launched an investigation into the incident.

According to sources, the UTP, identified as Deepak Barik of Budhabari village under Tarasingi police station in the district, was found hanging from the ceiling of the kitchen in the prison in the morning. The jail officials rushed him to Bhanjanagar Hospital. But the doctors in the hospital declared him brought dead.

Later, police handed over Deepak’s body to his family after the completion of post-mortem. His family members accompanied by the villagers staged a protest before Tarasingi police station and blocked the National Highway demanding investigation into suspicious death of Deepak inside the jail.

Police along with district officials tried to pacify the agitating villagers. But they continued the agitation demanding a written assurance from the authorities.

Deepak was arrested a few days back for alleged murder of his wife Rashmita Barik on November 25. Since then, he was lodged in Bhanjanagar Jail.

It may be noted that a UTP died by suicide in a sub-jail in Odisha’s Jajpur district on December 6.