'Family feud not the reason for IAS officer's murderous rage'

 
This has strengthened speculations that the senior bureaucrat could have committed the crime due to extreme mental disturbance over the CBI investigations into the illegal immigration scam emerging from the directorate of immigration protection under the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, in which Panda had been Protector General of Immigrants.

“Panda’s younger brother, Bibekananda Panda, who had spoken to his brother just the night before the murders, has told the investigators that there were no property or other family disputes,” a senior official in the police head quarters told Deccan Herald on Sunday.

In fact, the police learnt during their investigation that the IAS officer was a “father figure” to both his own as well as his step brothers and sisters.

Panda’s 80-year-old father Manaswi Panda who had fallen to his son’s bullets on that fateful night had five children—two sons(Jagadananda and Santanu) and three daughters(Bijayalaxmi, Manjari and Kishori)— from his first wife Nuadei.

After his wife’s death, he re-married Chandrakanti, who bore him four children—one son (Bibekananda) and three daughters(Bunu, Bini and Jhumki). Chandrakanti was present in the ancestral home located in Deogaon village in western Orissa’s Bargarh district when the incident took place. She escaped the massacre unhurt, as she was sleeping in the first floor of the two-floor house.

She was the first to learn about the killing spree, as she rushed down hearing sounds of gun shots.

His third sister Manjari could have joined the other two, Bijayalaxmi and Kishori to the officer’s murderous rage, had it not been for the pressing family commitment that made her stay home despite the elder brother’s invitation to visit the ancestral home.

Jagadananda’s own younger brother Santanu too had reportedly committed suicide more than two decades ago while pursuing postgraduation in English Literature at Sambalpur University.