Bhubaneswar: A day after the arrest of his nephew in the abetment of suicide of a woman student in Ganjam district, Odisha’s Transport minister Bibhuti Bhusan Jena Monday said he wants the law to take its own course.
Asserting that no one is above the law during the BJP government, the minister said that he had asked the police to conduct an impartial probe into the incident and give justice to the deceased woman’s family.
“My nephew’s name had surfaced in the case, and the police have arrested him,” Jena told reporters and claimed that the BJP government always maintain the policy of the law taking its own course.
The minister asked the opposition BJD and Congress to refrain from attempting to take political mileage out of the crime and alleged that the previous BJD government always shielded “murderers and rapists”.
The police Sunday had arrested the minister’s nephew, Biswajit Jena, on charge of abetment of suicide after the family members of the deceased 20-year-old woman student, whose body was found hanging in the ladies hostel Saturday, lodged a complaint against him.
The minister’s nephew, who was studying at the same private engineering college in Ganjam district, was allegedly in a love affair with the deceased woman.
Referring to some incidents during the previous BJD government, the minister alleged that no action was taken against former minister D S Mishra in the sensational Kalahandi woman teacher’s death and also in the Mahanga double-murder case. “Even former minister Pratap Jena was not taken into purview of the investigation even as his name figured in the FIR,” he said.
Noting that he does not want to point fingers at anyone, Jena said the death of the woman student was an unfortunate incident, and such a sensitive matter should not be politicised.
The incident must be investigated properly by the police fairly and transparently, he claimed.
The BJD Monday claimed that the police arrested the minister’s nephew only after its press conference.
“The remarks made today by the minister questioning BJD are completely unacceptable. Despite allegations of rampant illegal transportation of sand, morrum and stone chips in Ganjam district, the minister has failed to control the situation,” BJD spokesperson Lenin Mohanty said in a press conference Monday.
Since Jena was elected as an MLA for the first time and became a minister, the law-and-order situation in Gopalpur Assembly Constituency and Ganjam district has witnessed a steep decline, Mohanty alleged.
BJD women’s wing general secretary Ranjita Sahu alleged that incidents of violence against women have been increasing in Ganjam district over the last two years since the BJP came to power.