Bhubaneswar: The Odisha capital witnessed violent scenes as the BJP Yuva Morcha, the youth wing of BJP, took out a massive rally at the Lower PMG in the capital city with the intention to gherao the Assembly demanding a CBI probe into Health Minister Naba Das’s murder case.
The protesters also demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik over the deteriorating law and order situation in the state.
The rally turned violent as the police tried to stop it from progressing towards the Assembly and the protesters threw plastic water bottles and pelted stones at the law enforcers in retaliation. A violent scuffle ensued resulting in a mild lathi charge by the police to disperse the crowd.
A number of police personnel, BJP agitators and journalists sustained injuries in the mêlée. A number of agitators have been detained by the police.
Speaking to reporters, Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly, Jayanarayan Mishra reiterated that the state government was yet to give satisfactory answers to the questions raised by the Opposition MLAs related to the probe into the Health Minister Naba Das’ murder.
“The Chief Minister is just reading out from papers prepared by someone else. There has been no debate in the House on this issue,” he said.
Raising questions on the reluctance of the state government to hand over the case to CBI, Mishra claimed that the police are trying to suppress the case by declaring the accused Gopal Das as mentally unstable. He wondered, “How will the FBI help in the investigation when Gopal has already been made to undergo several tests.”
State BJP Yuva Morcha president Irasis Acharya said that the Crime Branch has failed to ascertain the motive behind the murder even a month after the crime. “The Crime Branch has failed to crack almost all cases transferred to it so far,” he alleged.
He said that the youth wing of the BJP will continue its protest till a satisfactory answer is found behind the murder of Naba Das.
