Missing Navy official seen in CCTV footage at railway station in Andhra: Odisha Police

Bhubaneswar/Berhampur: A 26-year-old Navy official who has been "missing" since Sunday, was last seen disembarking from a train at the Ichchapuram railway station in Andhra Pradesh and leaving the premises in an autorickshaw, a police officer said.

The Navy official Sourav Kumar Patra left his hometown Berhampur in Odisha’s Ganjam district to join duty at a Naval unit in Kerala's Kochi in the early hours of Sunday.

His family could not contact him since then and registered a complaint with the police on Wednesday.

During the investigation, the police found that the official deboarded a train at Ichchapuram railway station in Andhra Pradesh the same day.

"CCTV footage showed the Navy official Sourav Kumar Patra stepping out of the train at the station and boarding an auto-rickshaw later," the Inspector-in-Charge of Town Police Station, Berhampur, Soubhagya Swain, told PTI over the phone.

After verification of the CCTV footage, the police found out that he was leaving the Ichchapuram railway station on his own. He safely boarded the auto-rickshaw from the railway station on Sunday, the police officer said.

Preliminary investigation indicated that he might have returned to Berhampur and thereafter, left for Bhubaneswar in a bus, the police officer said, adding that his voter ID card was found from the over-bridge at Lanjipalli in the city. He also left his laptop at home.

"We have seized all and verified his call detail records (CDR)," Swain said.

Patra’s uncle Amulya Kumar Jena said the Navy official did not reach Kochi.

Police said two cases have been registered in the incident, one at Berhampur Town Police Station and another with the Government Railway Police (GRP) Station in Berhampur.

Patra joined the Indian Navy in 2019 and was working in the communication section at the Naval base in Kerala's Kochi, his family said on Wednesday.

He had come home last month to attend a marriage ceremony, his brother Sameer said.

According to Sameer's complaint, Sourav Patra left home early on Sunday (January 19) morning and took a train to Visakhapatnam. He was supposed to catch a flight to Kochi at 12.30 pm from there.

His phone was switched off soon after he left home on Sunday morning, Sameer said.

After getting no information about his whereabouts, the family lodged a missing complaint with the Berhampur Town police station on Wednesday.

The missing official’s family has urged the police and the Indian Navy to trace Patra as soon as possible.