Puri Violence: Gajapati Maharaja Urges People To Maintain Peace

Puri/Bhubaneswar: In the wake of the violence that took place here on October 3, Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingh Deb has urged the people of the Pilgrim Town to maintain peace.

In a message to the people through the media on Monday, he said the incident that took place was grossly unfortunate.

“I hope that the state government will conduct a detailed investigation into the incident and take appropriate action against the guilty. The police, the administration and the people should exercise restraint to ensure that no such incident takes place in future,” said the Gajapati Maharaja, who is now out on a tour to other states.

Meanwhile, the BJP on Monday accused the Puri MLA and Revenue minister Maheswar Mohanty of orchestrating the violence.

“The local MLA stage-managed the violence by engaging his supporters and keeping himself behind the scene only to draw sympathy from the people,” senior BJP leader KV Singhdeo told the media in Bhubaneswar.

Maintaining that the police did not do the right thing by taking action against the Shanti (peace) Committee members and registering cases against them, he asked as to why these people were not arrested earlier if they had evidence against them? “This shows the double standards of the police and the administration,” he added.

Meanwhile, police on Monday arrested 13 more persons including some shopkeepers and Yatrai Gumasta (agent) in connection with their involvement in the violence in Puri. While the Town Police have arrested eight persons, the Simhadwara police have arrested 5 persons. With this, the total number of arrest has gone up to 54.