Cameraman Manas Swain murder case: Prime accused Sarmistha Rout’s brother arrested

Bhubaneswar: In a major breakthrough in the cameraman Manas Swain murder case, police arrested the prime accused Sarmistha Rout’s brother today.

According to Bhadrak SP Bhadrak SP Charan Singh Meena, Sarmistha’s brother, Parmeswar Rout was arrested by police from Vijayawada of Andhra Pradesh. The accused is being brought to Odisha by road.

Cops were in search of Parmeswar after the murder case of Manas Swain came to light. During the investigation, police came to know that Parmeswar had planned Sarmistha’s escape by being in Vijayawada.

With the arrest of Parmeswar, the number of arrests in the murder case rose to six. Retired OIS officer Niranjan Sethi was also arrested yesterday for his involvement in the crime.

Earlier today, the Orissa High Court rejected the anticipatory bail plea of the prime accused Sarmistha Rout, the Editor of an Odia magazine.

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.

After Parmeswar’s arrest, police is likely to get information about Sarmistha’s whereabouts, said sources.

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.