BHUBANESWAR: Two days after Minister of State for Home Dibya Shankar Mishra announced his innocence over the murder of Kalahandi lady teacher Mamita Meher, opposition BJP and Congress stepped up attack on the State government for alleged attempt to derail the investigation by ignoring key aspects of the incident.
The Opposition referred to the reported meeting between the main accused Gobinda Sahu and Mamita in the presence of the Minister in an apartment at Raipur for a rapprochement between them and pointed out that Mishra has not clarified anything in this matter in his statement.
Raising the issue again on Monday, Congress MLA from Kantabanji Santosh Singh Saluja said that verifying the call records of the Minister and the main accused will establish the truth. He said the main accused and Mamita were in the capital city of Chhattisgarh from September 20 to 23.
The Minister tried to settle a dispute between the two in an apartment, he said and added that Gobinda deposited money in Mamita’s account after she returned to Kantabanji on September 23.
Hours after Saluja made the allegations, senior BJP leader Bijoy Mohapatra alleged that three meetings were held between the main accused and Mamita in Raipur in the presence of the Minister to reconcile their differences. The BJP leader said Gobinda was also in touch with the Minister while he was in the police barracks at Titlagarh.
The main accused had escaped from the barracks, where he was detained for five days following a missing complaint lodged by Mamita's family, on October 17. He was nabbed from a sugarcane field at Budhipadar in Balangir two days later. "These are just the first few pages of the story. More explosive facts will emerge soon," he said.
Alleging that the Minister owns massive assets in Raipur, Mohapatra said none of the questions raised by the Opposition has been answered by the government. "The police is also mum over the alleged botched-up investigation," he added.
Meanwhile, the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) on Monday gave a call for Odisha bandh on November 12 demanding the ouster of Minister Dibya Shankar Mishra and his arrest over his alleged closed links with the main accused Gobinda Sahu.