Bhubaneswar: The state unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Thursday, reiterated its demand for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the controversial death of Jajpur panchayat executive officer (PEO) Smitarani Biswal.
Addressing a presser, party spokesperson Lekhashri Samantsinghar castigated the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO). She targeted the third floor (CMO) for shielding the accused in the case and giving liberty to them in prison on the pretext of BJD leaders.
“More than two months have passed since the suspicious death of Biswal in Jajpur but no concrete investigation has been conducted in this regard. Rather, the local police are being influenced. We do not have faith in Jajpur SP. He is apparently influenced by the officials at third floor (CMO),” she said.
The leader told the media that the local police are said to have filed more than 2,000 pages of charge-sheet against the prime accused in the case, Rupesh Bhadra. However, they have not taken him in remand for a single day. The leader also claimed that medically all asphyxiations cannot be result of suicides and that the probe deliberately tried to give a suicide angle to the case, she added.
The state general secretary of the party also levelled allegations against some BJD legislators for giving patronage to the accused and also giving VIP treatment to him inside the jail. The leader accused the local MLAs of shielding the accused in the case and ensuring his VIP treatment inside the jail.
The BJD, however, refuted the allegations.
BJD leader Prashanta Nanda asked the saffron party to raise relevant issues and also requested them to respect the mandate of the people in the state which went against them.