Berhampur/Bhubaneswar: Senior BJD women’s wing leader Meenakshi Mishra breathed her last Thursday morning at a hospital in Bhubaneswar. She had set herself on fire in front of the office of the Berhampur Superintendent of Police (SP) nine days ago, protesting against the arrest of her son Raja.
Sources said, a group of miscreants had forcibly entered into the house of the BJD leader January 28 and attacked her son Raja alias Krutibas Mishra. When Meenakshi intervened, they attacked her too. The mother-son duo suffered injuries during the fracas and were rushed to the MKCG Medical College and Hospital by the locals in Berhampur.
After a complaint was lodged, the police first arrested a juvenile and then took into custody four other allegedly accused. However, police February 12 picked up Raja when one of the allegedly accused blamed him for the entire incident.
Meenakshi went to meet the SP at his office the very same day. Since the SP was not there, she met the Additional SP and demanded her son be released. When she failed to get any assurances she doused herself with kerosene and set herself on fire. Locals extinguished the flames, but by then she had suffered more than 70% burns.
Meenakshi was first rushed to a hospital in Berhampur and then shifted to the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack. From there a couple of days back, she was again taken to a private nursing home in Bhubaneswar as her conditions deteriorated. Even though she was undergoing treatment at the ICU she did not respond to medicines and died.
PNN