BHUBANESWAR: Even as the opposition rejected Crime Branch probe into Gobinda Sahu suicide calling it a conspiracy, some of the cases in recent years have found Biju Janata Dal lawmakers dragged into controversies.From Mahanga to Mahaling; Puri to Nayagarh, there is an eerie similarity in some of the cases in the recent times in the state.
The killings of BJP leader and former Mahanga block chairman Kulamani Baral and associate Dibyasingh Baral over political rivalry on January 2, 2021 and murder of Kalahandi school teacher Mamita Meher in October the same year rocked the state with the opposition demanding the scalp of the then ministers Pratap Jena and Dibya Shankar Mishra for their alleged involvement respectively.
A year later, prime accused in both the cases are no more. While Prafulla Biswal, one of the key accused in Mahanga double murder - who was on the run - died under mysterious circumstances in a road accident a month after the incident, Gobinda Sahu, prime suspect in Mamita murder allegedly died by suicide in Kantabanji sub-jail where he was lodged on Tuesday.
Though Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had not acted immediately, both Jena and Mishra were dropped from the council of ministers when the cabinet was reshuffled earlier in June this year.Earlier, similar suicides had also sparked controversy with the Opposition demanding stringent action against School and Mass Education Minister Sameer Ranjan Dash and former minister Arun Sahoo.
After a zilla parishad member from Puri district Dharmendra Sahoo was found hanging from the balcony of his house, a telephonic conversation recorded prior to his death surfaced in which Dash was mentioned. In 2006, one Chhabi Bardhan (35) of Ratanpur village in Nayagarh district and a BJD supporter, had died by suicide in the official residence of Nayagarh MLA Sahoo.