Baleshwar: The circumstances surrounding the death of 34-year-old engineer Rashmiranjan Sethi in Baleshwar district, Odisha, have taken a perplexing turn with the discovery of a suicide note.
Sources indicate that the note claims Sethi took his own life and absolves others of blame. However, the use of two different ink colors—where signatures and dates were written in a different ink than the main body of the text—has sparked doubts about its legitimacy. Authorities have forwarded the note for forensic analysis to determine if the handwriting matches that of Sethi or if it has been fabricated to mislead the inquiry.
In contrast, Sethi’s family vehemently disputes the suicide narrative, alleging foul play. They have lodged a complaint at the Sahadevkhunta police station, accusing his wife, Rashmi Rekha, and an associate, another engineer employed by the National Health Mission (NHM) in Baleshwar, of murder.
The incident occurred on the night of July 16 when Sethi, originally from Jagatsinghpur district and working in Kataka, visited Baleshwar to surprise his wife for her birthday. According to Rashmi, a government engineer stationed in Baleshwar, she discovered him hanging from the ceiling. He was rushed to the District Headquarters Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The family alleges that the couple’s three-year marriage was marred by frequent conflicts over Rashmi Rekha’s supposed extramarital relationship. They reportedly began living apart after Sethi was allegedly threatened and assaulted by his wife and her male friend. Relatives who examined Sethi’s body observed signs of a struggle, including multiple injuries on his neck and significant swelling near his ear, raising suspicions that he may have been murdered before the scene was manipulated to resemble a suicide.
While police have interrogated Rashmi, her answers are said to have been inadequate. The investigation is ongoing, exploring both the family’s murder allegations and the possibility of abetment to suicide, pending crucial postmortem results regarding the ligature marks and analysis of the controversial dual-ink note.
