Trending:

Hockey player and Olympic medalist Birendra Lakra accused of involvement in murder of childhood friend

Bhubaneswar News: Anand Toppo, Birendra Lakra's childhood friend was found dead inside his flat under mysterious circumstances in Odisha’s capital Bhubaneswar in February this year.

Mirror Now Digital

Updated Jun 28, 2022, 23:52 IST

Birendra Lakra

Photo : IANS

Bhubaneswar: Birendra Lakra, an Indian men’s hockey player and Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist has been accused of having involvement in the murder of his childhood friend, Anand Toppo. The father of the deceased levelled the serious allegations against the player on Tuesday.

Anand Toppo was found dead inside his flat under mysterious circumstances in Odisha’s capital Bhubaneswar in February this year. Meanwhile, the father of the deceased, Bandhan Toppo has accused the state police of shielding Lakra since he served as a DSP at one time, as per a PTI report.

Anand Toppo, who allegedly died by suicide got married on February 16, around two weeks before his death.

Bandhan alleged that he has been struggling to file an FIR for the last four months but the state police did not help him which forced him to come up with the accusation in public. Bandhan Toppo said that his family and Birendra Lakra were next door neighbours and so, Anand was his childhood friend.

“On February 28, we received a phone call from Birendra that Anand is unconscious and he is taking him to the hospital. Later, he informed us that Anand is no more. We asked him what had happened but he just told us to come to Bhubaneswar. We reached there the next day and we were taken to the local police station where the officer told us Anand had committed suicide. But there was no suicide note,” informed Bandhan Toppo to the PTI.

Bandhan said that they were shown Anand’s dead body after much insistence and on the first look he saw hand marks on his neck. However, the post-mortem report said it was a suicide, added Anand’s father.

Anand was reportedly found dead in flat No 401 of Ayush Radium in the Infocity area of Patia at around 10 on February 28. The flat belonged to Birendra. Further reports claimed that only Birendra Lakra and a girl named Manjeet Tete were present in the flat at that time.

“There were four persons in the flat during my son’s murder. A third person was also there who is now being protected,” the victim’s father claimed.

“I tried to lodge an FIR at the local police station but they didn’t entertain me saying it is a suicide. I went to the DCP office after a few days and filed a complaint but after waiting for four months for any action, we finally decided to go to the media,” said Bandhan Toppo.

The father of the deceased said, “I want justice for my son. I don’t have trust in Odisha Police as they are trying to save Lakra because he is a big man and one of them. I want an independent inquiry into the mysterious death of my son.”

According to sources, the incident was a fallout of a love triangle even though both Lakra and Anand were married, reported PTI.

“Anand died just 12 days after he got married. He got married on February 16 and died on 28. He was happy with his marriage,” Bandhan claimed. However, he did not give a clear answer when asked about Anand’s relationship with Manjeet

“I don’t know anything like that. But they were studying together in Bhubaneswar. If something happened after that I don’t know. Anand never told us anything about her,” Bandhan said.

The PTI reported further stated that Lakra remained unanswered despite repeated phone calls.

Lakra is currently in the national camp in Bengaluru training under former India captain Sardar Singh. However, he might be asked to leave the national camp in the wake of the controversy.

Lakra is a two-time Asian Games medallist (gold in 2014 Incheon, bronze in 2018 Jakarta) apart from a bronze medal in the Tokyo Olympics. He was also a part of the silver-medal-winning Indian team at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

Latest News