Bhubaneswar: Odisha minister TK Behera Monday said the dismissed assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Gopal Das who allegedly shot dead health minister Naba Kishore Das last month was an efficient police officer.
Gopal Das joined the police service as a constable in 1992 and was promoted to the post of ASI in 2009, the minister of state for home said.
Since 1993, he had been praised by the Odisha Police 45 times, Behera said while replying to a question of BJP member Kusum Tete in the Assembly.
The police officer had gunned down the health minister while the latter was stepping out of his vehicle to attend a public meeting at Gandhi Chowk January 29. The government handed over the probe to the state Crime Branch.
The opposition members alleged that the Crime Branch was attempting to prove that Gopal Das was a mental patient so that he can escape punishment.
The minister’s murder case was also raised during the Zero Hour in the Assembly where Congress members Taraprasad Bahinipati and Santosh Singh Saluja demanded an SIT probe into the killing.
PTI
