Orissa HC orders CID probe into death of former hockey player Birendra Lakra’s friend

Bhubaneswar, July 7 Trouble seems to be mounting for former India hockey team player and Olympian bronze medalist Birendra Lakra with the Orissa High Court ordering probe by the CID (Crime Branch) into the death of his friend Anand Toppo.

As Lakra is serving as a police officer in the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police, it would be proper if the investigation is conducted by an officer of the higher grade, it said, directing the ADG, Crime Branch, to entrust the investigation to a senior officer, not below the rank of Deputy Inspector General of police, who shall reinvestigate the matter from all angles and submit a report to the court concerned accordingly.

The previous investigating officer has been asked to transmit the entire case diary and all other records/documents collected during investigation to the CID's Crime Branch forthwith.

On February 28, 2022, Toppo was found dead under mysterious circumstances in a flat in which Lakra and a woman named Manjeet Tete were present.

In the HC order copy, it was mentioned that Toppo’s father Bandhna Toppo had received a call from Lakra that his son was unconscious and shifted to Capital Hospital, Bhubaneswar, in an ambulance. Later, the doctors declared him dead.

Suspecting foul play, the deceased's father attempted to lodge a complaint at the Infocity police station but this was not accepted on the ground that an FIR had already been lodged of a case of suicide.

Bandhna had asked the DCP and Commissioner of Police, Bhubaneswar, to convert the case into a murder case and start investigation, but no action was taken by the police.

Later, when he moved the Orissa High Court, police registered a case in November 2022 and started investigation. On December 15, 2022, the investigating officer received a viscera chemical report of the deceased, which revealed the presence of alcohol and drugs.

The IO obtained the opinion of a doctor at AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, who was of the view that the injury found on the neck of the deceased was ante -mortem in nature. On February 7, a final report was submitted stating that no prima facie evidence was made out to be murder case.

Feeling aggrieved, Toppo's father filed another application in the HC and it ordered for a CID probe.