Bhubaneswar: The BJP on Friday demanded removal of senior IPS officer Arun Bothra as head of Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Crime Branch probing into the kidnap and murder of Pari, the five-year-old girl of Nayagarh whose skeletal remains were found in the backyard of her house in July.
A day after the SIT team submitted its preliminary status report in the High Court, a youth, Saroj Sethi of Jadupur village alleged that the SIT chief had offered him Rs 5 lakh to confess to the crime.
State BJP spokesperson Lekhashree Samantasinghar said if the allegations made by Saroj were true then Bothra should be removed from the probe.
Sethi had come before the media and alleged that he is being intentionally framed in the abduction and murder of Pari. His allegations should be taken seriously and if those are true, then Bothra should be immediately removed as SIT chief, she demanded.
Also Read: pari-murder-case-bribe-for-confession-charge-against-sit-probe-team/
The BJP general secretary questioned as to why the Odisha Government is shielding its minister Arun Sahoo by handing over the probe to SIT? She further alleged that the government is using the investigation team to destroy evidence so that Sahoo and Babuli Nayak can come clean in the case while innocent are being framed.
BJP condemns such act, she added.
Earlier, the party had questioned the legality of Bothra’s appointment as SIT chief while Congress had demanded Bothra’s replacement.
Also Read: sit-submits-report-to-hc-sexual-assault-whiff-behind-paris-murder/
