Odisha minister’s nephew arrested in ‘suicide abetment’ case

2 min readBhubaneswarUpdated: Jun 22, 2026 06:34 AM IST

Berhampur SP Saravana Vivek M told The Indian Express that police registered a case based on the complaint filed by the deceased student’s maternal uncle and initiated an investigation.

Police in Odisha on Sunday arrested a final-year BCA student of a private engineering college, who is also the nephew of state Transport and Mines Minister Bibhuti Bhusan Jena, on charges of abetment of suicide.

The accused has been identified as Biswajit Jena.

The action came a day after a 20-year-old woman was found dead in her hostel room on Saturday morning. The deceased was a second-year BCA student in the same college. She was rushed to the MKCG Medical College and Hospital, where doctors declared her dead. The postmortem was conducted and more evidence is being collected, said police sources.

Berhampur SP Saravana Vivek M told The Indian Express that police registered a case based on the complaint filed by the deceased student’s maternal uncle and initiated an investigation.

The complainant alleged that the deceased student was in a relationship with Biswajit Jena, and claimed that she took the extreme step because of alleged mental pressure and harassment by the accused.

Senior police officers, including the SP, visited the site of the death while a scientific team collected evidence. Police said they have seized the laptop and mobile phone of the deceased student, while investigators also collected CCTV footage from the hostel premises as part of the investigation.

Friends questioned

A senior police officer said they have questioned the victim’s friends and acquaintances to gather further information and to ascertain the causes that led to the incident.

“We are verifying the accusations made by the family members of the deceased student and also trying to collect digital evidence. The probe is in its preliminary stage. We will be able to speak more about the incident once we make some advance in the investigation,” said a police officer.

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Minister Bibhuti Bhusan Jena was not reachable for comment on the arrest of his nephew.

Sujit Bisoyi is a Special Correspondent with the Indian Express and covers Odisha. His interests are in politics, policy and people’s stories. He tweets at @bisoyisujit87 ... Read More

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