Bhubaneswar: With Archana Nag’s honeytrap racket rocking Odisha, sex scandal in its new manifestation allegedly involving high-profile people including political leaders has returned to haunt the state.
While Archana was arrested for running the racket by luring influential politicians, bureaucrats and other high-profile people and then blackmailing them, a peep into history shows sex and politics have gone hand-in-hand for quite a while now.
As the involvement of politicians in sex scandals has become common in recent years, the honeytrap racket reminds one of the sensational Mamita Meher murder case. The incident triggered massive protests across the state last year as all the opposition parties demanded the resignation of the then Minister of State for Home Dibya Shankar Mishra alleging his complicity in the sensational murder case.
It was alleged that a sex racket was going on in a college hostel in Kalahandi where Minister regularly visited. Mamita, who worked as a teacher, went missing in October 2021 and her body parts were later found buried in an under-construction stadium. It was alleged that her murder had links with the sex racket.
In July 2022, the ruling BJD was again in news for an alleged sex scandal. Party MLA from Tirtol in Jagatsinghpur district Bijay Shankar Das after police initiated a probe following allegations of his involvement in a sex scandal. A woman had lodged an FIR alleging betrayal, sexual harassment and cheating.
A sex scandal also rocked the state capital when BJD legislator from Bhubaneswar Central, Ananta Narayan Jena was embroiled in a raging controversy during his stint as city mayor. The alleged sex scandal involving the BJD leader caused considerable embarrassment for the ruling BJD as Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik always took a dim view of such issues. In a video clip which went into circulation, Jena was allegedly found in a compromising position with a woman.
While the party waited for the investigation to end in Jena’s case, the past has not been so kind to other leaders. Naveen had sacked several leaders, including two ministers, in the past for their alleged sexcapades.
The ruling BJD was left red-faced in 2008 in the wake of the sensational Odisha assembly sex scandal surrounding senior leader and former speaker Maheswar Mohanty. In March 2008, a woman marshal of the assembly dropped a bombshell, accusing Mohanty of sexually harassing her. Amid an outcry and mounting pressure, Mohanty had to step down.
There was another casualty as Naveen also sacked his close aide and the then information and public relations minister Debasis Nayak after Mohanty’s resignation. He was suspected to have instigated the woman.
Another sex scandal rocked the state towards the end of 2008 when BJD and BJP were running a coalition government. Senior BJP leader and then revenue minister Manmohan Samal had to resign following a raging controversy over his alleged illicit affair with a woman.
However, veteran leader Damodar Rout escaped narrowly after he got embroiled in a similar controversy in the early 1990s during the Biju Patnaik government. Rout, who was a minister, was accused of sexual misconduct against a panchayat samiti chairperson from Kutra block in Sundargarh. Rout survived the fact-finding team which probed the matter and found little evidence against him.
Apart from politicians, sex scandals involving self-styled spiritual gurus, teachers and others have also surfaced in the state. The prestigious National Institute of Technology-Rourkela (NIT-R) was rocked by a scandal with a second-year post-graduate (PG) girl student levelled sexual harassment charge against a professor earlier this year.
In a similar episode, a PhD student had in April this year accused a senior professor of making sexual advances during a research-related experimental tour to Jharsuguda.
Self-styled godman Sarathi Baba alias Santosh Raul was in news for his alleged escapades in Kendrapada district. The godman’s popularity nosedived in 2015 when the media caught him red-handed with a young woman, an MBBS student of SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack, at Hotel Golkonda in Hyderabad’s posh Banjara Hills area on August 4.
