Even as the demand for stringent action against Congress State in-charge Jagdish Tytler and other senior leaders gained momentum, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Niranjan Patnaik on Tuesday dared the Government to arrest them. They have been charged with delivering provocative speeches at the ‘parivartan’ rally.
“We are waiting for the police, to arrest us, for the last four days, but where are they ?” Niranjan asked and announced that the Congress leaders have decided not to seek anticipatory bail. Before leaving for New Delhi after the rally, Tytler had challenged the police to arrest him on his return to Bhubaneswar on September 13.
BJD vice-president and Health Minister Damodar Rout had taken exception to Tytler describing Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik as a ‘beimaan’ (dishonest) and demanded action.
But Niranjan countered it saying even Naveen had said so. “If you rightly recall, the Chief Minister himself had recently described one of his party MPs as ‘beimaan’. If the word is so objectionable and provocative, then Naveen and Tytler should be booked under the same section,” he said.
The OPCC president asserted that Tytler had not delivered any provocative speech. The Congress had organised the rally with a call to ‘gherao’ Assembly and Tytler, in his speech, asked party members to break the police cordon. This is not at all provocative or instigating, he said. Police have registered eight different cases with two police stations for violence and rioting against the Congress leaders. Six of them have been lodged with the Capital police station and six with the Kharavela Nagar police station. Tytler and Niranjan, along with other party leaders who were present at the rally, have been booked under sections 120 (b), 353, 354, 506, 323, 336, 294, 147, 148 and 149 of the IPC.
Meanwhile, the Odisha Constable, Havildar and Sepoy Mahasangha president Padmanav Behera met Home Secretary U N Behera and demanded Tytler’s and other leaders’ arrest for their alleged provocative speeches at the rally.