A team of State Congress leaders on Friday met district authorities in the wake of attack on son of a party candidate for urban local body polls by some anti-socials on Thursday night. They demanded security for Congress candidates and arrest of the accused persons at the earliest.
Congress leaders Gurupada Nanda, Sibananda Ray, Harihar Karan and Batakrushna Tripathy along with district Congress president Sarat Rath called on Satyabhama Behera, the Congress candidate for ward no-1 at her house.
She told the leaders that she had received a threatening letter telling her to withdraw from the fray or else her children would be killed. She had informed the police about the letter and sought security.
At about nine pm on Thursday, three youths shot her son and a relative and sped away on a bike. Locals rushed the persons, who were hit in legs and thighs, to the hospital.
Following the incident, hundreds of local residents staged a rasta roko on the Grand Road bringing the traffic to a grinding halt for several hours. They held the BJD responsible for the shooting and demanded arrest of the accused persons.
An FIR has been filed at Baselisahi police station against seven persons who are close to the local BJD leaders.