BHUBANESWAR : The state government is planning to make public the judicial inquiry report on the murder of VHP leader and seer of Jalespata Ashram in Kandhamal district, Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, Law minister Prithiviraj Harichandan said on Monday.
Saraswati and four of his associates were gunned down at Jalespata Ashram during Janmashtami celebrations on August 23, 2008, leading to widespread communal violence that resulted in 39 deaths and rendered thousands homeless.
Speaking to mediapersons on the occasion of the 16th death anniversary of Saraswati, Harichandan said Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi has already discussed the issue and a decision will be taken soon.
The then BJD-BJP coalition government under Naveen Patnaik had set up a judicial commission of inquiry in September, 2008. Retired high court judge Justice Sarat Chandra Mohapatra was assigned the job to probe the assassination of the VHP leader and the subsequent communal clashes in the district.
However, Justice Mohapatra passed away in June 2012 before submitting the report and another retired judge of the Orissa High Court Justice AS Naidu took up the case in October that year. The Justice Naidu Commission of Inquiry submitted its report to the state government in December, 2015.
The BJD government, though, did not table the report in the Assembly despite repeated demands from Opposition BJP for the same. Before the submission of the judicial probe report to the state government, the special additional sessions court, Phulbani had convicted eight persons including a Maoist leader in the murder and awarded them life sentence.
Those awarded the life term were Duryodhan Suna Majhi, Munda Bada Majhi, Sanatan Bada Majhi, Garnatha Chalanseth, Bijay Kumar Samseth, Bhaskar Suna Majhi and Budhadev Nayak and Pulari Rama Rao alias Uday, a Maoist leader.
Not satisfied with the Crime Branch inquiry into the murder of the 89-year-old seer, the VHP and other organisations affiliated to RSS have been demanding a CBI probe. A protest march on the issue was organised in the city on August 23 this year by some RSS affiliates.
Govt to make Laxmanananda murder probe report public: Min
The same day Kandhamal MP Sukanta Kumar Panigrahi made a similar demand alleging that the masterminds behind the killings are still at large.
A petition has also been filed in the Orissa High Court by Dhenkanal-based social activist and lawyer Debashish Hota seeking CBI probe into the “unsolved murder case to find out the real culprits in the interest of justice, equity and fair play”.
Security was tightened across Kandhamal on Monday as VHP observed the death anniversary at various places of the communally sensitive district including Chakapada and Jalespata.