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Frenchman dies mysteriously in Baripada

Bibhuti Mishra in Bhubaneshwar

A French national, Porcu Sebastian Dominique, died under mysterious circumstances in Baripada in Orissa yesterday.

Dominique, 24, who had checked into a local hotel on February 13, was last seen alive when he returned to his hotel shortly after 9 pm last night. But when the hotel boy went to his room to enquire if he wanted dinner, there was no response.

The police was informed but took over two hours to arrive. It was after midnight that the door was broken down in the presence of a magistrate. Dominique was found gasping for breath. There were injuries on his stomach and a broken tube light was lying near him.

He was shifted to the headquarters hospital where he died at around 2 am. The doctor attending to him said the injury on his stomach were not enough to cause death and that the real cause of death could be ascertained only after the post-mortem.

But the police had taken no step to ensure a post-mortem till late afternoon.

Earlier, on December 31, Dominique had been discovered unconscious on the National highway about 15 kms from Baripada. He had told the police that some hooligans had looted him of his passport (no 20269B/28.8.95), visa and dollars. He had told the police that he had hired a car to go to Simlipal wildlife sanctuary after his visit to Bhubaneswar, Puri and Konark.

He later came to Baripada, perhaps in connection with the issue of a duplicate passport. He had also met the superintendent of police yesterday.

His sudden death has set off a spate of rumours in this communally-sensitive town, where Graham Staines, the Australian missionary who was burnt alive with his two sons, used to work.

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