Cameraman Manas Swain murder case prime accused Sarmistha Rout asked to appear before court

Cuttack: The Orissa High Court on Tuesday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Sarmistha Rout, the prime accused in cameraman Manas Swain’s murder case.

Apart from rejecting Sarmistha’s anticipatory bail plea, the Orissa High Court has reportedly directed her to appear in a lower court within four weeks.

Meanwhile, a team of Chandabali Police conducted a raid on Sarmistha Rout’s Bhubaneswar-based the house and office.

In a related development to the murder case, police arrested Sarmistha’s brother, Parmeswar Rout from Vijayawada of Andhra Pradesh earlier this evening.

Notably, Manas Swain was working as the cameraman of the web-channel owned by Sarmistha. His family members filed a missing report with Chandbali police on February 14 following which the cops registered a case under sections 373 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Prior to that on February 6, Swain travelled to Palaspur village of Bhadrak for video-recording of a marriage function and was enroute to Bhubaneswar the next morning when three people abducted him, said police. The deceased was in possession of some controversial videos and photos in a chip that Sarmishtha wanted him to hand over to her.

Sources further added that he was taken to an Ashram on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar, owned by Sarmistha, and killed. The missing case turned into a murder case on March 12 after Manas Swain’s body was unearthed from a paddy field in Nayagarh district with the help of Bhagyadhar Nayak, Bebek Nayak, and Krushna Chandra Nayak.

Sarmistha and her associate Jhuna Bhoi, who is also allegedly involved in the case, are on the run. Police have formed four teams to trace and arrest them.