Bhubaneswar, Sept. 14: Former Barachana legislator Sitakanta Mohapatra today said that he suspected the involvement of one of his servants in the death of his son.

Satyanarayan, the 43-year-old son of Sitakanta, died at a Cuttack hospital following asphyxiation and burn injuries on May 24.

Employee of a private engineering college in Bhuba-neswar, Satyanarayan was rushed to the hospital in Cuttack from Bhubaneswar on May 19 after he was found with severe burn injuries inside his Nilakantha Nagar house in Nayapalli.

The incident had taken place while his family members were visiting relatives in Cuttack and only his servant Babula, 19, was present in the house. Babula had told the police that Satayanarayan’s room might have caught fire due to a short circuit. The fire brigade had rescued Satyanarayan but he died on May 24.

Later, family members of the legislator found ornaments and cash worth Rs 10 lakh stolen from the house.

They had registered a complaint with the Nayapalli police station and on June 4, the cops arrested Babula. Police had also recovered some gold ornaments from Babula.

“We spotted Babula roaming around our house a week ago. We suspect that he might have hidden some of the stolen ornaments in our house. Besides, we suspect the servant to be behind the death of our son,” said Sitakanta.

The police said that Babula was released form the jail on bail a week ago. During investigation, it was found that Babula had sold some of the stolen ornaments. A case of unnatural death was registered with the Markatnagar police station in Cuttack. “We are investigating the involvement of the servant in Satyanarayan’s death,” said a police official.