JHARSUGUDA: The body of a 44-year-old man was fished out from Ib river by Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force personnel and firefighters on Sunday morning. Police said his colleagues had allegedly thrown him into the river after he was found to have died on way to Vimsar, Burla, on Saturday.
The deceased has been identified by police as Gautam Bhandari, 44. Police said five people from
West Bengal had reached
Jharsuguda on June 11 to work for a contractor, Haren Chandra Pati. Pati supplies labour to BGR Energy Systems, which is constructing the third and fourth unit of 660MW each at Orissa Power Generation Corporation at Banharpalli. The five were staying together in a worker's colony.
Of the five workers, Bhandari was finding it difficult to find employment owing to his ill health. "On Saturday, Bhandari complained of uneasiness. When his condition deteriorated at night, we informed the security in-charge, who advised us to take him to Vimsar. The security in-charge immediately arranged a vehicle to take Bhandari to Burla. But when we checked his pulse rate on the way, he was found to be dead. Not knowing what to do next, we threw the body into the Ib river from Rampella bridge," said Kajal Patra, one of the five workers.
When the security in-charge contacted them to enquire about Gautam's health later on, they told him that he had died. "On hearing this, he instructed us to take the body to TRL hospital instead of Vimsar, Burla. But by then, we had already thrown the body into the river," Patra added.
M. Shekhar, deputy general manager (security), BGR Energy Systems said, "When we came to know that the workers had thrown the body of Gautam Bhandari into the Ib, we immediately informed the police about the incident." Police have detained the four workers and the driver of the vehicle which took them to Burla.
