Last Update: February 22, 2023, 08:23 IST
Odisha Health Minister Naba Das died of bullet injuries on Sunday, January 29, 2023, near Brajrajnagar in Jharsuguda district. (PTI photo)
The ruling party dragged the name of Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan and claimed that he was scared of the ongoing crime branch probe.
A war of words broke out between the BJP and the BJD in Odisha on Tuesday over the probe into the murder of former minister Naba Kishore Das, with the saffron party demanding that two close aides of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik be brought under its ambit and the ruling party implicated. To be dragged Named Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and claimed that he was scared of the ongoing Crime Branch investigation.
Senior Odisha BJP leader Jayanarayan Mishra on Tuesday demanded that Patnaik’s aides be brought under the purview of the murder verification of his call records and the matter be handed over to the CBI.
The two people named by Leader of the Opposition Mishra are Patnaik’s personal secretary VK Pandian, an IAS officer and BJD’s organizing secretary, and Jajpur MLA Pranab Prakash Das.
The BJD then made a statement accusing Mishra of being involved in several crimes, including a murder case. Some BJD leaders, including state minister Pramila Mallick, also raised Pradhan’s name.
Former state health and family welfare minister Naba Kishore Das was shot dead by an assistant sub-inspector of police at Brajrajnagar in Jharsuguda district on January 29.
Mishra, who was talking to reporters in the assembly premises after leading the boycott of Governor Ganeshi Lal in the House, said, “I demand that Pandian ji and Jajpur MLA Pranab Prakash Das be brought under investigation.” And his four call records should be brought under scrutiny. A few days before the murder of Naba Das must be verified. As Odisha Police is incompetent in this, the matter should be handed over to CBI for fair investigation.
“ASI was only the shooter, but who was his handler? I will soon uncover the mystery of the brutal murder,” Mishra had claimed a few days ago.
Senior BJD leader and government chief whip Prashant Muduli hit back, saying, “The BJP should keep distance from the Leader of the Opposition as he has a criminal record and more than a dozen criminal cases against him. He (Mishra) had earlier attacked BJP’s state unit president and was caught on camera (on February 16) assaulting a woman police officer in Sambalpur. What does one expect from him?” Malik, the state revenue and disaster management minister, said Mishra spoke without any basis or evidence and claimed that he and Pradhan were making all kinds of allegations “to protect themselves” in the murder case because they knew The probe is headed towards him. ,
“They are scared of the crime branch investigation of Odisha Police because of their involvement in the murder and are making all kinds of allegations to protect themselves. But despite all the efforts, they will not be able to escape. Both fear that if they are subjected to narco and lie detection tests, their involvement will be revealed. That’s why they are telling fabricated stories every day.”
Mallick claimed that both the BJP leaders were afraid of Naba Kishore Das who was popular for his organizational skills. He claimed that the saffron party knew that due to their hard work and BJD’s organizational network, it would lose the Padampur by-election badly and is now facing a major defeat in the 2024 general and state elections.
He said, “If we go through the speeches of the Union minister during the campaign for the Padampur bypoll, it will become clear that he had threatened Naba Das directly and indirectly.”
The minister referred to the 2017 Laxmidatta Pradhan murder case in Chattapur in Ganjam district, in which the accused allegedly took shelter in a government guest house in Uttarakhand. He claimed, “If the call records of the accused are analysed, it will be known that Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan hatched a conspiracy to drive them away from Odisha and hide them in Uttarakhand.”
“Similarly in the case of the murder of Dileshwar Sahu during the Bijepur bypoll in 2018, Mishra and Odisha BJP Yuva Morcha president Irsis Acharya were arrested. The crime could not have been committed by the two without the support of the Pradhan… Jainarayan Mishra is a murderer and habitual offender who has 16 criminal cases against him, including a murder case, for which he was in jail for a long time.
Senior BJD leader Amar Patnaik called Jayanarayan Mishra a “mental case” for the allegations against Patnaik’s close aides in the murder case.
Neither the Union minister, nor the private secretary to the chief minister, nor Pranab Prakash Das could be reached for comments as repeated calls to them by PTI did not elicit any response. Pradhan is in New Delhi.
Meanwhile, the late minister’s daughter Dipali Das on Tuesday appealed to all parties not to politicize her father’s death. “The family is still in shock. We have faith in Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik who like a father stood by the family in times of crisis. The matter is being monitored by a retired High Court judge and we have faith in him.” Opposition chief whip Mohan Majhi and Congress whip Taraprasad Bahinipati said the slain minister’s daughter might have made the statement in the media under pressure from the ruling party as she has a political future.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)