Bhubaneswar: Upping the ante against the state government over alleged custodial deaths in Puri and Biramitrapur, Opposition BJP and Congress Tuesday demanded stringent legal action against former Puri SP Akhileshvar Singh.
Initiating a debate on admissibility of an adjournment motion on law and order situation in the state, Opposition chief whip Mohan Charan Majhi said the custodial death cases in Puri and Biramitrapur show that British Raj is going on in the state. “Who is responsible for the deaths? The government is trying to protect the senior IPS officers by taking action against some junior officials,” Majhi said.
“As per official report, seven custodial deaths were registered in Odisha in 2018. However, the guilty was not punished in a single case. What kind of investigation the police are doing?” he asked citing the example of arrest of former MLA Anup Sai, who was arrested by Chhattisgarh police in connection with a double murder case.
The BJP leader demanded probe by sitting judge of High Court into the Puri custodial death case.
Another BJP member Jayanarayan Mishra too slammed the government for rising crimes in the state and twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. Loot cases are being reported every day in the two cities during October and November, he said.
Senior Congress legislator Santosh Singh Saluja too targeted the IPS officer Singh (former SP of Puri) over the incident and alleged that the police officers are behaving like goons. Such police officer should be booked under Section 302 of IPC, he said. The Congress leader also demanded resignation of Minister of State (MoS) Home, Dibya Shankar Mishra for the custodial death cases.
“The way number of crimes is increasing in the state, I think Odisha has become as worse as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Why the Chief Minister and Police DG are silent on the custodial deaths?” asked Congress MLA Taraprasad Bahinipati. He demanded immediate suspension of the IPS officer and judicial probe into the case.
In his statement, MoS for Home, DS Mishra said, “Law and order situation in the state is under control. The general elections and by-polls were conducted peacefully. The entire police force worked as multi tasking force during the Covid-19 pandemic. Naxal activity has come down in the state.”
As regards the alleged custodial deaths, investigation will be conducted as per the existing guidelines of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), he said.
The Puri Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) will investigate the alleged custodial death in Puri while Panposh Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM) would probe the Biramitrapur incident, the minister said.