Phulbani: The 17th death anniversary of VHP leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati passed off peacefully in Odisha’s Kandhamal district amidst tightened security arrangements Friday, official said.
While security was especially tightened around Saraswati’s ashrams at Chakapada and Jalespeta, the entire district was placed under a security blanket as the VHP leader’s assassination August 23, 2008 led to large-scale violence that claimed 38 lives.
Saraswati’s death anniversary is observed according to the Hindu calendar, Jalespeta ashram head Swami Jeevan Muktananda Puri said.
The monk and four of his associates were gunned downed while they were celebrating Janmashtami at Jalespeta ashram under Tumudibandh police station in the district.
Kandhamal SP Harish BC said security was tightened up across the district in view of Saraswati’s death anniversary, which in previous years had sparked violence in the region.
Apart from two ashrams, armed police were also deployed at vulnerable points, the SP said, adding that no report of any untoward incident was received from any place so far.
Though it was claimed that Maoists were involved in the killing of Saraswati and his associates, the VHP continued to demand the arrest of the mastermind of the mass murder.
“The state government is committed to arresting all culprits responsible for the killings,” Kandhamal MP Sukant Panigrahi said.
Meanwhile, Opposition Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Congress criticised the BJP government in the state for not making public the report of the commission that probed the killing of the VHP leader.
Soon after the BJP came to power in the state last year, Law Minister Prithiviraj Harichandan assured that the inquiry commission report on the killing of Saraswati would be made public.
Justice Sarat Chandra Mohapatra was appointed as the one-man commission to probe Saraswati’s killing and the subsequent riots in 2008.
However, he passed away in 2012 before completing the inquiry. Then, Justice A S Naidu was appointed to head the panel, which submitted its report in two volumes to the home secretary in December 2015.
However, the findings of the commission have not been made public either by the previous BJD government or the present BJP regime.
PTI
