BHUBANESWAR: With many loose ends and unanswered questions linked to the broad daylight killing of minister Naba Kishrore Das by an on-duty police officer, the Opposition parties have demanded a probe into the incident independent of the state police.
Expressing shock over the manner in which a cabinet minister of a state was shot dead, leader of Opposition Jaynarayan Mishra said if the assailant Gopal Das, an assistant sub-inspector of police, was mentally unsound why he was put on minister’s duty.
What comes as a surprise that the ASI was issued the service pistol a day before the incident. All these things create suspicion in the mind of the people which required a thorough investigation. The state government should hand over the case to the CBI for an impartial probe and the same cannot be expected from the Crime Branch of Odisha police, Mishra said.
“We don’t have faith on the Crime Branch of Odisha Police which is a puppet in the hands of the ruling BJD. The Crime Branch is like Sankat Mochan (troubleshooter) for the government. Starting from Pari to Mamita Meher case, the CB gave clean chit to ministers involved in the murder cases,” Mishra said.
Targeting Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik over the deteriorating law and order situation in Odisha, state BJP general secretary Prithiviraj Harichandan said the state government has been claiming that the law and order situation of Odisha is far better than many other BJP ruled states. However, the Sunday incident exposed the government’s tall claims, he added.
“If the state government is unable to give protection to its ministers one can imagine the safety of the common people of the state,” he said. Harichandan said, “We have been hearing about such incidents in other states. Never before such incident occured in Odisha which is now turned to be the grazing ground of criminals.”