Birendra Lakra, former India hockey captain, under investigation in old suspicious death case

File picture of former India hockey captain Birendra Lakra
| Photo Credit: Biswaranjan Rout

Former Indian hockey captain and Olympian bronze medallist Birendra Lakra may find him in a soup as Orissa High Court has directed a high level reinvestigation into the suspicious death of his friend.

Mr. Lakra, along with another woman, was present in a flat in Bhubaneswar where Anand Toppo, a youth, was found dead under mysterious circumstances in 2022.

According to a copy of the Orissa High Court’s judgement, on February 28, 2022, the deceased’s father Bandhna Toppo had received a call from Mr. Lakra that his son Anand was unconscious and shifted to Capital Hospital, Bhubaneswar, in an ambulance by the woman, Manjeet Tete. The doctor, however, declared him brought dead.

Suspecting foul play, Mr. Toppo had tried to lodge a complaint at the Infocity police station, but the same was not received on the ground that another FIR had already been registered claiming the death to be a suicide. Despite repeated attempts, the Bhubaneswar police had refused to lodge a case that some foul play had happened in Anand’s death. When Mr. Toppo moved court, a case was registered.

As per court document, on December 15, 2022, the investigating officer received viscera chemical report of the deceased, which revealed the presence of ethyl 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, 2023, a final report was submitted stating that no prima facie evidence was made out to be murder case.

The argument of Shivsankar Mohanty, counsel for the deceased’s father, says, “Birendra Lakra is a high-ranking police officer being a Deputy Superintendent of Police and therefore, despite clear evidence of foul play involved in the death of the deceased, final report was submitted as mistake of fact deliberately portraying the death as a case of suicide.”

“There is ample evidence on record to suggest that the deceased was administered poison along with alcohol which caused his death and the accused persons attempted to cover up such fact by showing it as a case of suicidal hanging,” it was argued. Mr. Mohanty had also implied that Samita Mishra, inspector in charge of Infocity Police Station, deliberately tried to protect accused Birendra Lakra in connivance with the IO of the case.

The Olympian Mr. Lakra in his statement had stated that he was playing a game on his mobile phone using earphones when Toppo’s death was brought to his notice.

“There are glaring gaps in the investigation for which it cannot be so easily concluded that the death of the deceased was certainly due to suicidal hanging and nothing else,” said Orissa HC Judge Justice Sashikanta Mishra in his order.

The order says, “It is also borne out from the case record that Birendra Lakra is a high-ranking police officer belonging to the grade of DSP. The petitioner’s allegation that the investigation was biased or in any case not impartial appears to be reasonable in the facts and circumstances of the case. Therefore, directing the same agency (police) to reinvestigate would not be proper. Rather for the ends of justice, it would be proper for an independent agency like the Crime Branch to do so.”

The Orissa High Court directed Additional Director General (Crime Branch) to entrust the investigation to a senior officer not below the rank of Deputy Inspector General of Police who should reinvestigate the matter from all angles and submit report to the concerned court accordingly.