Phulbani: Elaborate security arrangements were made in Odisha’s Kandhamal district on Friday in view of the 17th death anniversary of VHP leader Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati. The VHP leader and his four associates were killed when Janmashtami was being celebrated at his ashram on August 23, 2008.
Adequate police personnel were deployed in sensitive areas, while entry and exit points were put under strict surveillance to ensure peace in the communally sensitive region.
Sources said Jalespata and Chakapada ashrams, where the late VHP leader had spent much of his spiritual life, followers, seers, and devotees gathered in large numbers to mark the death anniversary. Special prayers, rituals, and memorial events were organised to honour his legacy.
Saraswati was assassinated on Janmashtami day in 2008 by armed attackers, triggering widespread violence in Kandhamal and neighbouring districts.
Police have stationed four platoons at each of the two ashram sites, with additional patrolling teams moving through surrounding villages.
Fifteen platoons of police, supported by quick reaction teams, have been mobilised district-wide. Checkpoints at all major entry and exit routes were reinforced, with personnel conducting vehicle inspections and intensified frisking operations.
Meanwhile, opposition Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Congress lashed out at Odisha’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government for not making public the report of the commission that probed the killing of the VHP leader.
Notably. Law Minister Prithviraj Harichandan had stated last year that the inquiry commission report on the killing of Laxmanananda Saraswati would be made public soon. “The Chief Minister has had discussions in this regard and a decision will be taken soon,” he had told reporters.
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 17 years after the sensational murder.
Targeting the BJP government in the state over the issue, BJD spokesperson Lenin Mohanty sought to know as to why the report of the Inquiry Commission is yet to be made public as the saffron party had promised to publish its findings.
Hitting out at the state government, the BJD leader said people should know the findings of the probe conducted by the Commission. He raising questions over the intention of the state government.
Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Bhakta Charan Das, on the other hand, pointed out that BJD and BJP were running a coalition government when the VHP leader was killed.
Claiming that BJP and BJP have all along been together, he sought to know as to why the state government is trying to suppress the report instead of making it public as people have every right to know the findings of the investigation conducted by the Commission.
