Bhubaneswar: Scores of Youth Congress activists were Friday taken into custody while they were trying to gherao the residence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here protesting the alleged proximity of Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena and another BJD leader with Jitendra Kumar Beura alias ‘Golden Baba’.
The activists were demanding a probe into the alleged nexus between the BJD leaders and Golden Baba, who has been lodged in Jharpada jail after his arrest in several fraud cases.
The activists holding banners and placards started their march from Congress Bhawan.
They were demanding the arrest of the Mayor Jena and Chinmay Sahoo for their alleged relationship with the fraudster. The activists were arrest at Sishu Bhawan Square after some hours of scuffle with the security personnel. They also hurled eggs and tomatoes at the police officials during the melee. The agitators burnt the effigy of the leaders too.
Notably, Chandrasekharpur police had arrested Golden Baba December 31 in a case of Rs 12-crore fraud through cheque rigging. The cases were registered on the complaint filed by a prominent mining businessman from Baripada.
Later, the Commissionerate Police also found three other cases regarding financial frauds pending against Golden Baba. A person from Varanasi in UttarPradesh also filed a complaint against Golden Baba. Police during a two-day remand of Golden Baba has unearthed unaccounted properties worth several lakhs from his locker at a private financial firm. Later, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of state Crime Branch on the requests of Commissionerate Police took the charge of the probe into the shoddy financial dealings by Golden Baba.