NBW issued against former Malkangiri Collector Manish Agrawal and three others check details

Malkangiri: Malkangiri Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM) issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against senior IAS officer and former Malkangiri Collector Manish Agarwal in connection with the death of his then personal assistant (PA) Deba Narayan Panda in 2019.

According to reports, the Malkangiri SDJM issued the NBW against IAS officer Manish Agarwal, who is working as the Additional Secretary to the Planning & Convergence Department of the Odisha government, for neither deposing before the court nor responding to repeated notices in connection with Panda’s mysterious death.

The SDJM court also issued the NBW against three others, V Venu (then data-entry operator), Prakash Swain (then stenographer) and Bhagawan Panigrahi (then Odisha Revenue Service officer), who are the other accused in the case.

Notably, Debnarayan Panda went missing from his office on December 27, 2019 and his body was recovered from Satiguda dam in Malkangiri on the following day under mysterious circumstances.

While probing the case, police initially registered a suicide case and later an unnatural death case over Panda’s death. However, his wife alleged that he might have been murdered and filed a case at the Malkangiri SDJM pointing fingers at the then collector Manish Agarwal and three other staff.

Based on the complaint, a murder FIR was lodged against Agrawal and three others and the State Crime Branch launched probe into the incident and following the direction of the court the four accused were booked under sections 302 (punishment for murder), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), 201 (causing disappear of evidence of offence), 204 (destruction of document to prevent its production as evidence), 120 (B) (punishment of criminal conspiracy) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the IPC.