BHUBANESWAR/PURI: Even as the political storm over the alleged custodial death in Puri shows no sign of subsiding, the case took a new turn on Saturday with the police releasing a video claiming the family members of the victim K Ramesh had cremated his body at Swargadwar.
Countering the allegations that the family members were not allowed by police to see the body of Ramesh after post-mortem or conduct the last rites, the office of the SP, Puri, posted a video footage on Twitter stating that the body of Ramesh was cremated by his family members including his father K Gurumurthy and uncle K Arya at Swargadwar after post mortem at the district headquarters hospital.
In another development, while the relatives of the victim have alleged that his parents have been taken away by police, a separate video with a purported statement of Ramesh’s mother and father has begun doing the rounds in social media. The parents are shown to be stating that they are staying in a relative’s house to escape harassment by political leaders and mediapersons.
Meanwhile, with the BJP latching on to the issue to corner the government, party national spokesperson Sambit Patra along with local MLA Jayant Kumar Sarangi, Brahmagiri MLA Lalitendu Bidyadhar Mahapatra and hundreds of workers staged a rally from Gundicha mandir to Collector office on Saturday. Patra also met relatives of Ramesh on the day.
Speaking to mediapersons, Patra said he would fight till the guilty were punished and the family got justice. He demanded the police personnel involved should be booked for murder, `1 crore compensation to the bereaved family and an impartial investigation conducted by NHRC. The two custodial death incidents also continued to rock the Assembly for the second consecutive day with the BJP and Congress members demanding exemplary action against the erring police personnel. Members cutting across party lines also expressed concern over the police excesses and demanded corrective action.
Twist in Puri custodial death as House simmers for 2nd day
Raising the issue as soon as the House assembled for the day, Leader of Opposition Pradipta Kumar Naik said transfer of Puri S P Akhileswar Singh is an eyewash and demanded his suspension. He sought a detailed discussion in the House on the issue through a motion.
He also demanded a judicial probe into the incident. Criticising the government for protecting the IAS and IPS officials by punishing low ranking officials, Naik alleged that the law and order situation has completely collapsed in the State as is evident from the murder of six of a family in Balangir district. He also raised the issue of a sarpanch seeking sexual favour from a woman in order to allocate a house under Awas Yojana meant for poor people in Kalahandi.
Leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Narasingha Mishra also came down heavily on the government and alleged that now ‘Jungle Raj’ prevailed in Odisha. “Transfer of SP is not a punishment. Exemplary action should be taken against him so that other police personnel will get a lesson and respect human rights of people in custody,” the CLP leader said.
Senior Congress member Taraprasad Bahinipati demanded suspension of former Malkangiri Collector Manish Agarwal who has been booked in a murder case. Similarly, the former Puri SP should be booked under section 302 of IPC and arrested, he said. Senior BJD MLA Amar Prasad Satpathy also expressed concern over the alleged custodial deaths. However, he said, the issue cannot be discussed in the House through a motion as the matter is sub-judice.