Politics Heats Up In Odisha After Law Min’s Statement On Reopening Naba Das’ & Other Cases

Bhubaneswar: The Mohan Majhi government will reopen the year-and-a-half-old murder case of Health Minister in previous BJD government, Naba Kishore Das, and a few more heinous past crimes in Odisha.

“He (Naba Das) was a BJD member, but he was a minister. A minister being murdered in broad daylight can’t be taken so lightly,” Law Minister Prithiviraj Harichandan told TOI in an interview.

Naba Das, a 3-time MLA from Jharsuguda, was shot by Gopal Das, an assistant sub-inspector, in broad daylight at Brajarajnagar on January 29, 2023. The Crime Branch of Odisha police had then said that he committed the crime as he felt threatened by the Minister and his supporters and feared for his life.

The accused is in judicial custody and the trial is on.

Harichandan further said that a few other past crimes, including assassination of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati in 2008 and murder of Kalahandi teacher Mamita Meher in 2022, will also be re-investigated.

Welcoming the Minister’s statement, Jharsuguda MLA Tankadhar Tripathy, who defeated Das’ daughter Dipali in the last election, alleged that previous government weaved an ‘unbelievable’ story around the daylight murder, which cast doubt on the probe agency. “There was a demand for a free and fair reinvestigation into the incident. If the Law Minister has made such a statement then a probe should be conducted as people of the state have the right to know the truth behind the murder of a Cabinet minister,” he told reporters.

Rebuffing the allegations, BJD leader Aswini Patra said that the Naveen Patnaik government ensured a proper probe into Naba Das’ case, leaving no rooms for any doubt.

Notably, former state BJP president Samir Mohanty in May said that a thorough probe would be conducted into the daylight murder of Naba Das and alleged corruption in different spheres if the saffron party is voted to power in Odisha. The BJP had also demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the 2008 gruesome murder of Swami Laxmanananda, a Hindu seer, by some miscreants at his ashram in Kandhamal district after the Orissa High Court issued a show-cause notice to the then BJD government asking why a probe by the central agency should not be ordered in the case.

Assassination Of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati

Swami Laxmananda Saraswati and four of his aides were killed at his ashram at Jaleshpata in Kandhamal district on August 23, 2008. The killing triggered communal violence in Odisha in which at least 38 people were killed. It also strained the ties between the two ruling allies, the BJD and BJP, resulting in a breakup.

Five years after the brutal  killing of VHP leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, the court of additional district and sessions judge in October 2013 sentenced eight convicts, including Maoist Pulari Rama Rao alias Uday, to life for murder, criminal conspiracy, rioting and possessing illegal arms. All others were natives of villages in Kotagarh and Tumudibandh blocks in tribal-dominated Kandhamal.

Mamita Meher Murder Case

A teacher at Sunshine English Medium School, Mahaling in Kalahandi district, she went missing on October 8, 2021 and her body parts were traced beneath the soil on October 19, 2021. She was reportedly strangulated to death by Gobina Sahu, promoter of the school. Former BJD minister Dibya Shankar Mishra was also dragged into the controversy and opposition accused his nexus with Sahu,. His driver Radhe Shyam Chandi was also arrested on charges of helping him with disposing off the lady teacher’s body and destroying evidence.

However, Sahu was found hanging from a window behind the jail kitchen at Kantabanji sub-jail in December 2022, sending the sensational case into a tail spin.