Five years after Assistant Conservator of Forests Soumya Ranjan Mahapatra died of severe burn injuries at his official residence, the long-running case has taken another sharp turn.
Paralakhemundi police have arrested cook Manmath Kumbha, one of the three principal accused, on the strength of a non-bailable warrant (NBW).
The arrest comes as the Supreme Court dismissed a petition by the officer’s widow, Bidya Bharati Panda, leaving the Orissa High Court’s order intact and her earlier interim protection from arrest without cover.
The cook is taken into custody
Police in Gajapati district executed the warrant against Kumbha, who worked as the cook in the ACF’s household at the time of the 2021 incident. He is named along with Bidya Bharati Panda and then Paralakhemundi Divisional Forest Officer Sangram Keshari Behera in the family’s murder complaint.
The family has long alleged that the death was not an accident and that Kumbha was part of a conspiracy. Those allegations remain before the trial court and have not been proved.
Former DFO Behera had already surrendered before the Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate court in Paralakhemundi in July 2026. His bail pleas were rejected, and he was remanded to judicial custody.
What happened in July 2021
On the night of July 11, 2021, Soumya Ranjan, a young Odisha Forest Service officer posted as ACF in Paralakhemundi, suffered extensive burns at his government quarters. He was shifted from local hospitals to Cuttack and died the next day.
On July 14, his father, Abhiram Mahapatra, lodged a complaint alleging murder. He named his daughter-in-law, the then DFO, and the cook, and alleged an extramarital relationship between the DFO and Bidya Bharati. Those claims were later examined during the investigation and remain contested in court.
Public outrage forced the state government to transfer the probe to the Crime Branch in August 2021. In October that year, the Crime Branch described the fire as accidental, citing a dying declaration in which the officer was said to have spoken of burning papers with kerosene when he slipped. It booked Bidya Bharati under negligence provisions and gave a clean chit to Behera and Kumbha.
The family refused to accept that finding. A protest petition before the Paralakhemundi SDJM court led the magistrate to take cognisance of murder and criminal conspiracy charges under Sections 302 and 120B of the IPC against all three accused.
Courts strip away protection
The legal fight then moved up. The Orissa High Court declined to quash the proceedings and later rejected anticipatory bail for Behera and Kumbha, clearing the path for warrants and surrender.
In September 2026, the High Court dismissed Bidya Bharati’s petition and directed her to appear before the trial court by October 1. It also refused to restore the interim shield that had earlier kept arrest at bay.
On Wednesday, September 30, the Supreme Court dismissed her challenge. The apex court left the High Court order in force, meaning the direction that removed interim protection continues to operate.
Why this arrest matters
For years, the case appeared to stall after the first Crime Branch report. The family’s persistence in the lower court, followed by High Court and Supreme Court setbacks for the accused, has brought the matter back to the trial stage.
With Behera already in custody and Kumbha now arrested on an NBW, attention turns to whether Vidyabharati appears before the Paralakhemundi court as directed. The charges of murder and conspiracy will be tested only at trial. Until a court decides otherwise, they remain allegations.
The death of a young forest officer in his own quarters still unsettles Odisha because the official story of an accident and the family’s charge of a planned killing have never been reconciled in public. Wednesday’s Supreme Court order and the cook’s arrest do not answer that question. They do, however, pull the case out of legal delay and back into the courtroom where it belongs.
