Bhubaneswar: A day after his nephew was arrested in connection with the alleged abetment of suicide of a 20-year-old woman student in Ganjam district, Transport Minister Bibhuti Bhusan Jena on Monday said the law should take its own course and asserted that no one is above the law under the BJP government.
Speaking to reporters, Jena said he had instructed the police to conduct a fair and impartial investigation and ensure justice for the deceased student’s family.
“My nephew’s name surfaced in the case and the police have arrested him. The BJP government always follows the principle that the law must take its own course,” the minister said.
He also urged opposition parties, including the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the Congress, not to seek political mileage from the incident. Jena alleged that during the previous BJD government, accused persons in several high-profile cases were shielded from investigation.
The minister referred to the death of a woman teacher in Kalahandi and the Mahanga double murder case, claiming that no action had been taken against certain political leaders despite allegations against them. However, he maintained that he did not want to point fingers at anyone and stressed that the student’s death was a sensitive matter that should not be politicised.
Calling the incident unfortunate, Jena said the case must be investigated fairly and transparently by the police.
Police on Sunday arrested the minister’s nephew, Biswajit Jena, on charges of abetment of suicide after family members of the deceased lodged a complaint against him. The woman student’s body was found hanging in a ladies’ hostel of a private engineering college in Ganjam district on Saturday.
According to police, Biswajit Jena was a student of the same institution and was allegedly involved in a relationship with the deceased.
Meanwhile, the BJD on Monday claimed that the police acted against the minister’s nephew only after the party raised the issue during a press conference.
