Odisha Congress workers on Tuesday hurled eggs at the official residence of the state’s minister of state for home Captain Dibya Shanakar Mishra and burnt his effigies, alleging that one of his close associates was involved in the murder of a lady schoolteacher in Kalahandi district. The minister hails from Kalahandi.
Police on Tuesday also recovered a half charred decomposed body from an under-construction stadium in Kalahandi. Though locals and relatives pointed out that the body was that of the missing schoolteacher after seeing the gold chain and pair of anklets recovered from the spot, police are yet to make an official declaration and sent the remnants of the body to a lab for DNA test. The official announcement will be made after the DNA report is available with the police, officials said.
It was alleged that Captain Mishra’s close associate, the president of the school management committee, Gobinda Sahu, where the teacher 24-year-old Mamita Meher was working (Sunshine English Medium School at Mahaling under Golamunda block), had perpetrated the crime. Sahu has been arrested. It was alleged that Mamita was kidnapped by the president and later murdered. The family members alleged that Mamita had got specific proof on how a sex racket was going on the school premises at the behest of the president and even had threatened to reveal it. Sahu’s school ran classes from one to 12 and also had a college on its campus.
Though the police had taken main suspect Sahu into custody four days ago, he had managed to flee from the police barack on Sunday night. A video has gone viral in which Mishra was seen praising Sahu at a recent function. The Opposition alleged that the escape drama was enacted to give Mishra a clean chit.
As pressure mounted following the Opposition hitting the street, police on Tuesday morning announced Rs 1 lakh for any one who gave any clue on Sahu’s whereabouts. It has also put posters on various places in Kalahandi and adjoining Bolangir. Sahu was finally arrested on Tuesday.
Both the Opposition Congress and the BJP upped the ante and demanded the immediate resignation of the minister. The Congress workers too organised a demonstration at Bhawanipatna, the district headquarters of Kalahandi, burnt the effigies of Capt Mishra and chief minister Naveen Patnaik and demanded the immediate resignation of the minister.
The family members of Mamita said she was asked by Sahu on October 8 to come to school for some work. Mamita, who hails from Turekela of Bolangir, the neighbouring district, took a bus to reach the school. But on the way, she was kidnapped and has been missing since then.
“The police had assured us to bring our daughter back alive. We suspect some heinous crime was done. We want our daughter back. The president of the school management committee Gobinda Sahu should be immediately arrested,” said missing girl’s uncle Kaushik Meher.
Demanding a CBI probe, senior Congress MLA Santosh Singh Saluja: “A sex racket was going on the school premises. The minister used to visit the school premises and we do have proof. It was the minister who was giving patronage to the school management committee’s president.”
The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) vice-president Debi Prasad Mishra said: “Just levelling allegations won’t prove one guilty. Law will follow its own course. Culprit will be definitely punished.”