Odisha woman cricketer’s death: Police recovers handwritten note

Rajashree Swain went missing from her hotel room in Cuttack on January 11 after the selection trials and three days later on Friday, her body was found by a forest department official who informed the police

A day after the body of a 26-year-old woman cricketer from Odisha was found hanging from a tree in the Brahmanbasta forest of Atagarh in Cuttack, the police found have seized a handwritten note blaming the Odisha Cricket Association (OCA), officials said.

Pinak Mishra, deputy commissioner of police (DCP), Cuttack (ANI Photo)

Rajashree Swain went missing from her hotel room in Cuttack on January 11 after the selection trials and three days later on Friday, her body was found by a forest department official who informed the police.

Police also discovered her scooter and helmet lying in the same area and officials investigating the matter said a handwritten letter was recovered from her scooty, according to which the deceased held two persons, including coach Puspanjali Banerjee and a former official of the Odisha Cricket Association responsible for her death.

“A forensic examination of the handwritten letter would be done to ascertain who actually wrote it,” a police officer said.

Meanwhile, the deceased cricketer’s father Gobinda Swain said that the handwriting does not match her daughter’s and blamed the OCA for her death. “My daughter has been murdered and OCA officials are involved in the killing,” he said.

The OCA, however, clarified that there were no irregularities in the player selection process. The police are likely to question the OCA officials about the note recovered from the body, officials said.

Meanwhile, the Cuttack wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday staged a protest outside the OCA office seeking an impartial probe into this matter, further blaming the association for the cricketer’s death.

“She is a renowned athlete. She was an all-rounder. OCA President Pranab Prakash Das is behind her murder. There was no need for the young athlete to go to a dense forest in Athagarh for committing suicide,” said a BJP leader who did not wish to be named.

“At a time when the Odisha chief minister is busy promoting the Men’s Hockey World Cup, why is he turning a blind eye towards the injustice meted out to the woman athlete? She was mentally disturbed due to OCA’s favouritism in the selection procedure,” he said.

Rajashree Swain, an all-round cricketer, was among the 25 women at the cricket selection camp at Cuttack last week, giving trials for the senior women’s cricket tournament starting from January 18 in Puducherry.

According to the police, Rajashree’s name was not announced in the 16 probables on January 10 and after the trials, on January 11 she told her coach that she would be going home to the Puri district.

However, when she did not return till evening, her coach Pushpanjali Banerjee lodged a first information report (FIR). Her mobile phone was also switched off since the day she went missing, police said.

Police said that a case of unnatural death was registered while an investigation into the matter has been launched.