BHUBANESWAR/CUTTACK/BERHAMPUR: Police on Monday blamed ‘past enmity’ for the double murders in Cuttack district’s Mahanga area on Saturday evening, in which a BJP worker and an associate were killed. The BJP, however, dismissed this and termed the murders as political killings. The party also staged protests against in different parts of the state, demanding the resignation of BJD leader and law minister Pratap Jena, named as an accused in the case.
BJP leader Kulamani Baral and his associate Dibya Singh Baral, both on a bike, were attacked by a group of people near Jankoti Chhak, leading to their deaths. Citing preliminary findings, SP (Cuttack Rural) Jugal Kishore Banoth said, “Past enmity seems to be the reason for the murders.” He declined to elaborate. No one has been arrested for the murders yet.
Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi and the party’s national spokesperson Sambit Patra posted tweets describing the crime as a political one.
“Is Odisha going the West Bengal way?” was common to the tweets by the two BJP leaders.
BJP state general secretary Prithviraj Harichandan accused BJD of trying to hush up the twin murders and threatened to gherao police stations and SP’s offices across the state on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.
BJP supporters in Berhampur burnt the effigy of Jena at Kamapalli on Monday. They also demanded a CBI probe into the incident. “We demand his resignation as a minister,” said BJP’s district president, Bibhuti Jena.
The minister brushed off the allegations and said the guilty would be punished and the victims would get justice. “Our political rivals are trying to give the murders a political colour. It will be my sincere effort to ensure that the culprits get stringent punishment as per law,” Jena said.
BJD spokesperson Chinmay Sahoo also dismissed BJP’s allegations. “Let the probe finish. The BJD has never tolerated any kind of political violence. In the Mahanga case, too, the guilty will not be spared,” he added.
Quoting NCRB’s Crime in India 2019 report, Chinmay said, “Odisha did not report a single political murder in 2019. West Bengal reported 12 followed by Bihar and Jharkhand with six. Karnataka and Punjab reported four political murders in 2019,” he said.