Bhubaneswar: The opposition BJP demanded a clarification from the Odisha government as to why it did not submit the final investigation report on the Pari murder case in Nayagarh district to the Supreme Court.
“When the state government and the Crime Branch Special Investigation Team (SIT) have submitted the final charge-sheet with a claim that they have enough evidence to convict the accused, then why the government, instead of submitting the final investigation report in the Supreme Court, has engaged the Supreme Court lawyer EC Agrawala to fight the case on its behalf?” BJP state general secretary Lekhashree Samantsinghar told mediapersons here on Tuesday.
“The law firm of EC Agrawala is the largest law firm in the country and charges crores for a single hearing. As the Odisha government has decided to engage this law firm to fight the case by spending huge money from the state exchequer, the people of Odisha will seek clarification as they are the tax-payers,” she pointed out.
The BJP leader also alleged that the SIT investigation was not based on the complaint lodged by the victim’s mother, who has mentioned the names of Babuli Nayak and his associates as being the culprits. Incidentally, Babuli is an associate of Minister Arun Sahu. Rather, the investigating agency has done its best to protect the minister, she claimed.
Referring to the plea of the Odisha government to the Supreme Court to allow four weeks time to submit the affidavit on the status of the investigation, she said that as the state government is very much aware that it has neither any evidence against Saroj Sethi, (who the SIT has arrested as an accused) nor against someone as it has destroyed all evidence against the prime accused. “The state government has sought four weeks time only to destroy the remaining evidence,” she added.
Also Read: Pari Murder Case: SC Gives 4 Weeks Time To Odisha Govt To File Probe Progress Report