Mahanga: A man allegedly hurled slippers at senior BJD leader and state Law Minister Pratap Jena Sunday evening in his home Assembly constituency Mahanga in Cuttack district during a cultural event.
The incident took place when the Minister was attending Sarat Ustav at Erakana locality of Mahanga. He was sitting on the dais after addressing a gathering when a man from the crowd hurled slippers targeting Jena.
Luckily, Jena escaped and the slippers hit his security personnel instead. The man has been identified as Nagabhushan Swain aka Kunu from Bainpur village under Mahanga block in Cuttack district.
According to sources, the Sarat Utsav-2021 was organised by state Culture department at Gokana Bhanja Mandap in Mahanga. Minister of Tourism Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi was to attand the cultural event as chief guest, but he could not. Jena being the local MLA inaugurated it in presence of standing zilla parishad member Hrisikesh Swain.
The man was immediately overpowered by some BJD workers who were present on the spot. The party men then thrashed him black and blue leaving him bloodshed. Tension mounted at the ongoing event following the incident.
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On being informed about the incident, a local police team reached the spot and detained the person. Later, he was taken to Mahanga community health centre for treatment.
Worthy to mention, Jena has been facing the wrath of people over the sensational Mahanga double murder case. BJP leader from nearby locality named Kulamani Baral and his close associate Dibyasingha Baral were murdered in January 2, this year.
As many as 13 persons including Jena were booked under different Sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC), including 302 (murder). Name of the Minister was dropped from chargesheet, which was challenged in a local court and it ordered proper reinvestigation of the case.
The Inspector in Charge (IIC) of Mahanga police station Nihar Ranjan Mohanty had been buying time from the court to submit the reports prompting the court to issue a show-cause notice, seeking explanation by December 10 this year as to why coercive and punitive action shall not be taken against him as per CrPC for not appearing before it.
Mohanty submitted reinvestigation report of the murder case and Call Detail Report (CDR) of the three accused in local JMFC court.
PNN