BERHAMPUR: A day after senior advocate and BJP leader Pitabasa Panda was gunned down near his residence at Brahmanagar, the party’s state president Manmohan Samal asserted that the killers will not go unpunished.
Paying his last respects to the slain leader on Tuesday, Samal offered condolences to the bereaved family and said Pitabasa was a good organiser and his death is an irreparable loss for the BJP in Ganjam district. “Gundaraj will not be tolerated by the BJP government. Strict action will be taken against the culprits. Whoever killed Pitabasa will be punished,” he added.
Apart from the state BJP chief, Steel & Mines and Transport Minister Bibhuti Bhusan Jena, Fisheries and Animal Husbandry Minister Gokulananda Mallick, Berhampur MP Pradeep Panigrahi and party’s organisation secretary Manas Mohanty also paid their last respects to Pitabasa at his residence.
Meanwhile, the Ganjam Bar Association (GBA) strongly condemned the incident and demanded strict action against the culprits involved in the cold-blooded murder of the senior advocate. The president of the State Bar Council demanded a compensation of Rs 1 crore to Pitabasa’s family and arrest of the culprits within 48 hours. It was decided that lawyers across the state would resort to cease work on Wednesday to protest Pitabasa’s murder.
Earlier, Pitabasa’s body was brought to his residence after postmortem at MKCG Medical College and Hospital in Berhampur on Monday night. People from various walks of life paid their last respects to the slain BJP leader following which his body was taken in a procession and garlanded at various places in the city. His last rites were performed at Gokarneswar crematorium at Gate Bazar in Berhampur. Pitabasa’s 20-year-old son Sourabh lit the funeral pyre in the presence of leaders cutting across the political spectrum.
Pitabasa was gunned down by two bike-borne msicreants near his residence in full public glare on Monday night.
