BHUBANESWAR: The second day of the winter session of the Assembly on Thursday witnessed noisy scenes with the Opposition BJP and Congress members demanding an independent probe, either by the CBI or court-monitored SIT, into the death of lady panchayat extension officer (PEO) in Jajpur district Smitarani Biswal.
On the other hand, the government, referring to the autopsy report, maintained that she committed suicide.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik remained absent during the discussion which continued for more than two and half a hours even as the BJP members remained in the well of the House shouting slogans during the entire period.
While the absence of the Chief Minister from such an important discussion relating to the Home department has come in for strong criticism from the Congress, the BJP, till the morning, had been demanding a discussion and CBI probe into the incident.
Leader of Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Narasingh Mishra rejected the conclusion of police that the death of Smitarani was due to asphyxia and may be suicidal in nature. There is strong circumstantial evidence which shows that it is a case of murder, Mishra said and added that neither the ruling BJD nor BJP wanted a discussion on the incident. He criticised the BJP’s double standards over the issue.
“The BJP demanded a discussion and submitted an adjournment motion notice, but withdrew it later,” he said and added that this has exposed a tacit understanding between the BJD and BJP not to discuss the issue.
His party colleague Santosh Singh Saluja questioned how could a lady get the opportunity to commit suicide when four persons were present in the guest-house. Alleging that it was a case of rape and murder, Saluja also criticised the Jajpur SP for maligning her character.
“There is no security of women in Odisha,” Tara Prasad Bahinipati said and referred to earlier cases like Babina and Itishree, which were suppressed because of alleged involvement of powerful local ruling party politicians.
Making a statement in response to the adjournment motion, Minister of State for Home Dibya Shankar Mishra, however, ignored the demand for a CBI probe by saying that in the past, independent agencies have enquired and reached the same conclusions as the police.
“The Tikiri murder case was assigned to CBI and a judicial probe was also ordered into Kunduli case. The independent agencies have enquired and arrived at conclusions which were known in the course of police investigation,” he said.
Stating that a systematic and scientific inquiry has been conducted by the police into Smitarani incident, the Minister said the postmortem concluded that the cause of death was asphyxia and may be suicidal in nature. Not satisfied with the reply of the Minister, the Congress members staged a walkout.
Soon after the commencement of House proceedings, Congress members created noisy scenes by shouting slogans in the well of the House following which the Speaker adjourned the proceedings till 12 pm.
Later, after it was reconvened, BJP MLAs too staged protest in the well over the issue. Some BJP members attempted to climb up the podium of the Speaker leading to further adjournment of half-an-hour.