Bhubaneswar: Finding itself cornered by aggressive campaign by opposition BJP in Mamita Meher murder case, particularly with panchayat elections ahead, the ruling BJD took the fight to the opposition party’s camp.
Speaking at a press meet, here on Saturday, BJD spokesman and MP Sasmit Patra alleged that opposition parties, particularly BJP, have been misusing the crimes against women for their narrow political gains.
Substantiating his allegation Patra cited two instances where the BJP has thrown all scruples to the wind and sacrificed the dignity of the victims’ families to take a political mileage.
In the first instance of Itishree Pradhan murder case, Patra said though the crime took place in 2013, BJP found it a suitable opportunity to gain political upper hand and made it the main agenda during 2014 elections. But the BJP failed in its gameplan.
“People could see through the opaque strategy of the BJP and did not vote for the party. Soon after, the party forgot all about the incident and returned to its cocoon,” said Patra.
He said though the state government had ordered a Crime Branch probe into the murder, the BJP continued to target BJD leader Jayram Pangi. But Crime Branch completed its investigation and the culprits were arrested.
After the Supreme Court order CBI probe, the BJP changed its colour and nominated Pangi as its candidate for Koraput seat in 2019 elections, Patra said.
Similarly in Kunduli murder case, while police investigation was in progress, the BJP made it an issue in Bijepur byelection. But, when the government formed a commission and a special investigation team (SIT) to probe into the incident, both BJP and Congress backtracked.
Both parties did not turn up to file their complaints before the commission, Patra said adding that it proved their obvious plan to politicise the issue.
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