Bhubaneswar, Dec. 27: National Students' Union of India state president Itish Kumar Pradhan today slammed police for their lackadaisical approach towards the sex tape case allegedly involving mayor Ananta Narayan Jena and the subsequent death of an engineering student.

Pradhan was the first to allege that the mayor had featured in a sex tape and also linked him to the death of the engineering student. He today criticised the police for not recording his statement though he was summoned twice.

"Earlier, Capital police summoned me on December 20 for recording my statement, and I was again asked to appear before them. When I reached the police station today, I was told that the investigating officer was not present. This shows the seriousness of the police probing the student's death," said Pradhan.

The student leader reiterated his allegation of Jena being responsible for the death.

"He was the member of student wing of our party, and he was fed with eight packets of drugs that led to his death. I have earlier named the mayor in the issue based on the student's conversation with me before his death. I don't have any faith in the police and our statement should be recorded in presence of a magistrate instead of the police. The sex tape should be sent to the central forensic laboratory and the probe should be handed over to the CBI," he said.

Pradeep Pandy, the chief of a local web channel that had first uploaded the sex tape on the Internet, also accused the police of adopting a lenient approach in the matter.

Pandy, whom the police summoned today for recording his statement, too, alleged that his statement was yet to be recorded. He said: "As I have earlier maintained that we never named anyone in the video, leaving it to the viewers to identify the person in the sex tape."

On December 15, Jena lodged a complaint at Capital police station against Pradhan and Pandy.

He alleged that the video had been doctored with the intention of maligning his reputation. The police registered the case under several sections of the IPC.

The police said the investigating officer in the case was on leave and both Pradhan and the web portal chief would be summoned to depose before it on another day.

Mother cries foul

In a twist to the death of engineering student, the mother of the deceased today suspected that his son had been murdered.

"My son left home after his meal. He had called me late in the late night and told me he would return next morning. But he died on that day and I strongly suspect that my son had been killed," the victim's mother said after coming out of the Khandagiri police station.

The parent of the deceased and his sister also deposed before the police today to record their statement.