BHUBANESWAR: Stepping up pressure on the BJD government over Nayagarh minor girl murder case, members of the BJP on Monday staged a dharna near Raj Bhawan here demanding a CBI probe into the case and resignation of Minister Arun Sahoo.
State BJP president Samir Mohanty said the Minister has no moral right to hold the constitutional post after the parents of victim girl named Sahoo for having close links with Babuli Nayak, the prime accused.
“Our fight will continue till Sahoo is sacked by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and the case is handed over to the CBI for an impartial probe,” Mohanty said.
Meanwhile, senior BJP leader and former Odisha DGP Prakash Mishra gave a new twist to the SIT probe by raising a question of legality on appointment of IPS officer Arun Bothra as head of SIT. “Since the SIT chief is currently holding the post of Managing Director of OSRTC and he is not working in Odisha Police, he doesn’t even have the powers of police,” Mishra said.
On the other hand, commenting on BJP’s protest, BJD vice-president Debiprasad Mishra said, “Everyone wants justice for the minor girl. A special investigation team (SIT) of the State Police is investigating into the case. Since it will be a court monitored investigation, the matter should not be politicised.”
Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Niranjan Patnaik also slammed the BJP for not showing similar reaction to the rape and murder cases at Pipili and Kunduli. Dubbing the BJP dharna as a drama, Patnaik said the BJD and BJP are two sides of a coin.
On the demand for CBI probe, Patnaik said the central investigating agency is probing into 19 cases results of which are yet to come. A court-monitored investigation is much better than a CBI probe, he said.