Post News Network
Bhubaneswar / Kendrapara, August 6: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Thursday ordered a crime branch inquiry into the alleged escapades of Santosh Raul alias Srimad Sarathi, in the wake of the statewide outcry against the self-proclaimed godman.
The order came after a local news channel carried reports and photographs of the godman, in jeans and branded shirt, checking into a room in a star hotel in Hyderabad with a girl, eating chicken and drinking wine. The report was later carried by print media and on social media networking sites.
Meetings and road blockades were organised in Kendrapara, where nine platoons of police personnel were deployed and prohibitory orders imposed as several people gathered in front of the main ashram of the godman at Barimula. Police also resorted to lathicharge as people held demonstrations at the ashram, Kendrapara SP Satish Kumar Gajbhiye said.
Congress MLA from Aul Denedranath Sharma submitted a petition to the Kendrapada collector seking a probe into the controversy.
BJP activists submitted a memorandum to collector Debaraj Senapati demanding the godman’s arrest under the National Security Act. They also demanded that the ashram at Barimula be sealed.
The National Federation of Indian Women and Orissa Construction Worker’s Union held a demonstrated in front of the collectorate demanding a judicial inquiry and punishment to the godman.
Students of Kendrapara Autonomous College burnt tyres at Tinimuhani on the Cuttack-Chandabali road, demanding Sarathi’s arrest.
Hundreds of women, under the banner of the Rajya Pragatisila Mahila Surakhya Manch, staged a demonstration in front of the ashram, questioning the validilty of the crime branch probe and demanding Sarathi’s immediate arrest. The former chairman of Kendrapara municipality, Bijay Krushna Sahu, said the crime branch would not be able to initiate an impartial inquiry as BJD leaders and MLAs have a good rapport with Sarathi.
However, former minister Ganeswar Behera welcomed the crime branch inquiry and said “truth will come out and the guilty will be punished”.
Sarathi had said he had no relations with any woman and denied staying in any Hyderabad hotel. P3, 5
