Expelled BJD leader and MLA from Gopalpur, Pradeep Panigrahi was picked up by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch from his residence. Panigrahi’s wife Sujata, while revealing the details on Thursday evening said that people came in four SUVs and took him away. “Identifying themselves as sleuths from the Crime Branch EOW, they took away my husband from our residence in Bhubaneswar”, she said.
According to a report by OTV, Sujata Panigrahi said, “Without any notice or warrant, they picked up my husband. Is my husband is a Naxalite or a terrorist that he’s been ill-treated by the officials”. She added, “if the government had shown the same alacrity in case of Naxals the problem would not have existed by now”.
Saying that her husband was being targeted and harassed intentionally, she questioned what the need was for purported sleuths to take a sitting MLA away in this manner to an undisclosed location. She added that she was unable to locate him. “If anything happens to my husband, the Chief Minister will be responsible,” she said.
If anything happens to my husband, I will pull everyone to the court of law & Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik alone will be responsible for this: Sujata Panigrahi, wife of Gopalpur MLA #PradeepPanigrahi slams Odisha govt pic.twitter.com/t7URuwMOUW
— OTV (@otvnews) December 3, 2020
According to SambadEnglish, Sujata. claiming that her husband was being framed, said, “The government claims that Rs 2.5 crore has been deposited in my husband’s bank account. I accept that. We are ready to clarify on that. Without giving any opportunity to put our stand, the government has exerted undue pressure on us”.
Following his expulsion from the party after his alleged links with tainted IFS officer Abhay Kant Pathak surfaced, Panigrahi, in a series of media interviews had threatened to expose the corrupt practices of the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD government in the state. After his expulsion, Panigrahi had alleged that there is wide corruption in the procurement of sub-standard pulses for distribution in the mid-day meal programme of the state government.
Odisha Government Vs OTV: A channel harassed for exposing the corruption of the state government?
We have earlier reported how OTV MD Jagi Mangat Panda has alleged that her organisation is being targeted for coverage of the Naveen Patnaik Government’s alleged corruption. Recently, on November 10, Randhir Singh, father of Jagi Mangat Panda had issued a video appeal to the Union Home Minister of India, Amit Shah, seeking protection from the excesses of the police officials against his family and employees at the channel’s studio in Sarua, Khordha, under the pretext of carrying an investigation into a land issue.
It is pertinent to note here that at the site in-charge at Sarua, Anirudhha Panda was arrested by a group of policemen at 3 AM on Tuesday. The posse of about 15-20 police officials had reportedly climbed the boundary walls of the studio and hustled away Panda in the dead of the night without offering any reason.
Last month, Ramesh Rath is a senior reporter with Odisha Television (OTV) was allegedly arbitrarily picked up by a group of policemen barely a few hundred metres from his residence and was not allowed any communication, even with his family members. The channel had dubbed the arrest as a fallout of Rath reporting about Naveen Patnaik’s chopper run to assess the flood situation in the state. The Odisha police excesses, however, did not stop at this. A day after Rath’s arrest, a team of police had reportedly arrived at the office of the channel to search without warrants for the same, OTV had stated.
Before this other two employees working for the channel were also arrested. Rath and the other two were arrested in as many as 20 cases, leaving little doubt amongst many of the state-sponsored harassment against the company employees.
The Odisha Government has levelled a host of allegations against OTV and its affiliate organisations. OTV MD Jagi Mangat Panda had in a press release earlier, asked the Odisha government to investigate all the allegations levelled against them but asked him to stop harassing the employees, forcing many to tender their resignations.