Laxmanananda Saraswati Murder Probe Report To Be Made Public Soon: Odisha Minister

Bhubaneswar: The inquiry commission report on brutal killing of VHP leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati in Odisha will be made public soon, Law Minister Prithiviraj Harichandan said on Monday.

“The Chief Minister has had discussions in this regard and a decision will be taken soon,” he told reporters.

Earlier in the day, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan garlanded a statue of the seer at the latter’s native village Gurujanga in Talcher. His son Lokanath Das, who was also present on the occasion, along with other VHP and BJP leaders demanded a CBI probe into murder and stringent punishment against the culprits.

Meanwhile, the Kandhamal administration has made elaborate security arrangements for peaceful ‘Janmashtami’ celebration on Monday, which is also observed as the death anniversary of slain VHP leader, after recent social media posts raised concerns about likely unrest.

THE SENSATIONAL MURDER

Unidentified gunmen had shot dead the 84-year-old seer and four of his associates at his Jalespata ashram in Tumudibandh on the night of August 23, 2008, the day of Janmashtami. The incident triggered ethno-communal riots in Kandhamal and adjoining areas in which at least 38 people were killed and thousands were rendered homeless.

The district administration had then responded with a 40-day curfew to restore order.

The state Crime Branch, in its second chargesheet, had stated that it had got prima facie evidence against Maoists Sabyasachi Panda, Udaya, Somanath Dandasena, Azad Duna Keshava Rao, Dasru, Lalu and Lakhmu.

In October 2013, additional district and sessions judge of Kandhamal Rajendra Kumar Tosh sentenced all eight convicts, including Maoist leader Udaya, to life term for murdering the Hindu seer. The others were natives of villages in Kotagarh and Tumudibandh blocks of the tribal-dominated district.

THE JUDICIAL COMMISSION 

Justice Sarat Chandra Mohapatra was appointed as the one-man commission to probe Saraswati’s killing and the subsequent riots on September 8, 2008. However, he passed away in 2012 before completing the inquiry. Then Justice A S Naidu was appointed to head the one-man probe panel, which submitted its report in two volumes to the home secretary in December 2015.

However, the findings are yet to be made public even 16 years after the sensational murder.

CBI PROBE DEMAND

In January, the BJP demanded for the report of judicial commission to be made public without delay after the Orissa High Court issued a notice to the then BJD government on why a CBI probe should not be ordered into the seer’s murder.

A high court lawyer and social activist Debashisha Hota had filed a petition seeking a CBI probe into the “unsolved murder case” alleging that the state government had not taken interest to find out the real culprits, except for claiming that Saraswati was killed by Maoists.

The BJD government, however, opposed the CBI inquiry and petitioned the court to dismiss the plea with exemplary costs. It highlighted that the murder case had concluded with the conviction of the accused individuals by the additional session judge, Phulbani. “The accused individuals have filed appeals before the high court, which are currently pending,” the affidavit stated.