A 26-year-old missing naval officer was last seen deboarding a train at Ichchapuram railway station in Andhra Pradesh and leaving in an autorickshaw. The officer has been missing since Sunday (January 19, 2025).
Naval officer Saurav Kumar Patra had left his hometown Berhampur in Odisha’s Ganjam district in the early hours of Sunday for his duty at the naval unit in Kochi in Kerala. Since then his family has not had any contact with him and on Wednesday the family lodged a police complaint.
During investigation, the police came to know that the officers had deboarded a train at Ichchapuram in Andhra Pradesh on the same day. Inspector Saubhagya Swain, in-charge of Berhampur town police station, told PTI over phone, “In the CCTV footage, Navy officer Saurav Kumar Patra was seen getting down from the train at the station and sitting in an autorickshaw.”
The police officer said that after verification of the CCTV footage, the police found out that he was going alone from Ichchapuram railway station and boarded an autorickshaw safely from the railway station. Preliminary investigation indicates that he may have returned to Berhampur and left for Bhubaneswar in a bus. Police said the voter ID card of the officer was found from an overbridge on Lanjipalli in the city. He had also left his laptop at home.
Patra’s relative Amulya Kumar Jena said that he did not reach Kochi. According to Patra’s brother Sameer, he had come home last month to attend a wedding ceremony. According to Sameer’s complaint, Saurav Patra left home on Sunday (January 19) morning and caught a train to Visakhapatnam. He had to catch a flight from there to Kochi at 12.30 pm.
Sameer told that his phone got switched off immediately after leaving home on Sunday morning. After not getting any information about him, the family lodged a missing complaint at Berhampur Town police station on Wednesday. The family of the missing officer has urged the police and the Indian Navy to locate Patra as soon as possible.
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