BJP leader Upasna booked for attack on contractor

BHUBANESWAR: BJP leader Upasna Mohapatra was booked along with 19 others including a PCR van in-charge on charges of assaulting a tenant in IRC Village on Wednesday.While 17 persons have been arrested, Upasna and her husband Subhranshu Biswal are yet to be traced by police. Those arrested include the house owner Bijay Kumar Nayak and his wife Sanjukta.

Upasna, daughter of late Congress leader Lalatendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra, along with 30 to 40 people allegedly attacked the tenant Pranab Ray and ransacked the house on Tuesday night, police said. Ray has alleged that the attackers looted over Rs 60,000 and other valuables. They have also been accused of damaging the CCTVs installed in the house and fleeing with the hard disk. 

Bhubaneswar DCP Umashankar Dash said the complainant alleged that Upasna and her associates barged into the house under Nayapalli police limits, manhandled him, stole cash and valuables, and asked him to vacate the property.What was, however, embarrassing for Bhubaneswar police is that a PCR van-in-charge, sent to the spot, was present and watched the whole incident play out. 

Modern control room informed the PCR vehicle and its in-charge Sangram Keshari Mohanty reached the spot. He stayed there for about three hours but did not apprise Nayapalli police station of the matter. He even submitted a compromise letter at the police station which the victim had written under coercion from the accused and they had planned to submit it in the civil court where the victim had filed a case, said a police officer.

When the situation deteriorated, Bhubaneswar DCP and other officers rushed to the spot. Police registered a case under Sections 120B, 395 and 450 of IPC on Wednesday and arrested 17 persons including PCR-18 in-charge lance naik Mohanty.  Complainant Ray said, he was staying in Bijay’s house since December 2016 and had reportedly invested Rs 60 lakh towards renovation. “Bijay wanted to sell off the house and I had expressed interest in the property. He quoted a Rs 2.5 crore price and I wanted a couple of months time to arrange the money,” the complainant, a contractor, told TNIE. 

However, Bijay had apparently sold the house to Subhranshu. Following this, the victim filed a case in a civil court. Upasna, on the other hand, wanted Ray to vacate the house at the earliest.Sagar Ray, a builder who was arrested by Central Bureau of Investigation in 2014 for his alleged links with the Artha Tatwa Group, has also been booked in the case for reportedly sending goons to accompany Upasna.