Bhubaneswar, June 25: Family members of senior bureaucrat Gagan Bihari Swain, 59, who died at Bhubaneswar railway station yesterday, have demanded a thorough probe into the case, suspecting foul play.

Railway police said Swain, who was additional secretary of the planning and co-ordination department, had committed suicide by jumping before the Howrah-Puri Passenger. His family members, however, turned down the suicide theory.

“He was happily making arrangements for my marriage. I had never seen him depressed. I suspect foul play in his death. Though railway officials have called it a suicide, we are not satisfied. We demand proper investigation,” said the bureaucrat’s younger son Mahima Mandit Swain. The IAS officer’s elder son Nilotpal is employed with a private company in Chicago.

The family members, however, admitted that Swain, a promotee IAS, had been upset over his frequent transfers. Sources said some people in his department were opposing his move to get his latest transfer order cancelled. Government Railway Police (GRP) officials visited the state secretariat to quiz his colleagues.

The bureaucrat, who had earlier served as Sonepur collector, was transferred as the director of textiles in August last year. In February, he was shifted to the planning and co-ordination department as additional secretary.

Fifteen days ago, he was again transferred to the Odisha Small Industries Corporation as its managing director. “He was a diabetic and he had recently been transferred to Cuttack. He was very upset over the move and had applied for cancellation of his transfer to Cuttack,” said Swain’s wife Namita.

Sources said that last afternoon, his transfer to the corporation was cancelled and he was reinstated as additional secretary in the planning and co-ordination department.

An official said Swain’s colleagues told them that he had been irritated for the past few months. “We also suspect that he had some problems with his son’s marriage,” said the official.

Swain, who was also a well-known litterateur, was hit by Puri bound Howrah-Puri Passenger on platform No. 3 of Bhubaneswar railway station yesterday afternoon. Train driver L.D. Mallick, in his written memo to the station master and the GRP said a person had jumped in front of his train as it was entering the platform and was crushed under the wheels.

One of Swain’s colleagues said he had come to office yesterday and distributed his son’s marriage cards. Then he went home and returned around 3.30pm. But then, he disappeared again with no one aware of his whereabouts.

A railway police official said the bureaucrat, who was promoted to the IAS rank from the Odisha Administrative Service cadre in 1999, committed suicide around 4.30pm. “After we were informed about the incident, we rushed to the platform and found Swain dead,” said inspector in charge of the GRP (Bhubaneswar) Soubhagya Swain.

Ushashree case

The police today received the post-mortem report of Ushashree Parida, wife of retired lieutenant colonel Somnath Parida, who killed her and sliced the body into pieces before stashing them in two iron boxes for disposal. Deputy commissioner of police Nitinjeet Singh said the report revealed that the death was homicidal in nature with multiple fractures on the head.

Doctor at the forensic, medicine and toxicology department of SCB hospital Manoj Jena said he had received 76 pieces of the body parts, including her skull.

In another development, Parida’s family members performed Ushashree’s last rites in Cuttack after they were handed over the body parts.