Indus Valley Times

By Ratikanta Mohanty

Bhubaneswar, Feb. 5: Union education minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday came down heavily on Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for “keeping mum” on the broad daylight murder of state cabinet minister Naba Kishore Das on January 29 at Brajarajnagar in Jharsuguda district.

While interacting with media persons here, Mr Pradhan alleged that the basic approach of the state government to get the murder probed for establishment of the motive behind the crime was “erroneous” and smacked of an attempt to cover up the failure of the state police administration securing life of the minister.

“The Crime Branch (CB) of the state police is investigating the case. The appointment of the retired judge of High Court of Orissa to monitor the CB probe has not been as per the Inquiry Commission Act, 1952 and his rights have not been clearly defined as well,” he said.

Pradhan also termed Odisha DGP Sunil Bansal’s statements that Naba Kishore Das’ murder was one of its kind incidents and only Lord Jagannath could have known it, as ‘unfortunate.’

“There is absolutely no place for violence in democracy. Unfortunately, nobody in the Odisha government has any answer why the police Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) of police Gopal Das shot the minister dead from a point blank range which led to the latter’s death. And, the DGP’s statement that only Lord Jagannath knows the motive of accused Gopal Das, speaks volumes about the law and order situation in the state. The DGP is trying to escape by taking the name of Lord Jagannath which is totally unacceptable,” said Pradhan.

Stating that the state had plunged into a state of lawlessness, the minister observed that people were in doubt as to who was actually running the state.

“After watching several videos, people are now questioning as to who is actually running the government in the state. In three sensitive cases– Mahanaga double murder case, Ananda Toppo case and a girl’s allegations against BJD MLA Bijay Shankar Das – the High Court had to intervene and direct investigation and register the complaints.

“Such incidents clearly suggest that law and order in Odisha has failed. The Chief Minister needs to take up responsibility and respect the people’s mandate. You (ruling BJD) have only been given responsibility, and not the authority to treat it as your property,” said Pradhan.

Be it the minister Naba Kishore Das’ murder, or the recent attack on Balasore Sub-Collector and other such cases, the law and order situation has gone for a toss here. If such incidents can happen to a high-profile cabinet minister or a Sub-Collector, one can imagine what could be the condition of a common man, said Pradhan.

The minister observed that law enforcement agencies in Odisha were not discharging their prime role well and there should be an independent inquiry by a third party agency into the minister’s murder. He, however, did not mention which third party agency he was referring to.

Responding to the allegations of Pradhan, ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader Sashi Bhusan Behera said, “Whenever such an incident happens, the state government takes appropriate action and in this case also there has been no negligence as far as investigation is concerned. The government is also alert to the situation and efforts are on to ensure that such incidents do not recur.”