Youth and student Congress workers and police personnel were stung by honey bees during a demonstration against senior IAS officer Bishnupada Sethi here on Monday.

While the Congress workers ran for cover, the policemen tried to save themselves by lying on the ground. Reporters covering the event were also not spared from the attack. After the bee attack subsided, the Congress workers gathered and organised the protest again.

Members of the Odisha Student Congress and Youth Congress staged a protest in front of the official residence of Sethi demanding the arrest of the senior IAS officer in connection with the ₹10-lakh bribery case. The CBI has grilled Sethi’s drivers in this connection and summoned the officer to appear before it.

As the protest was going on, a few people threw stones at the bee hive. Angered by this, the bees retaliated and attacked the protesters, spreading panic in the area. They also did not spare the policemen who were deployed on the site to maintain law and order. While many of them tried to save themselves by ducking, others ran away from the spot and started running helter-skelter.

After the bee attack subsided, the Congress workers returned to the site and started their agitation. The police detained the Congress workers while they tried to barge into Sethi’s residence by jumping the barricades.

“The CBI has summoned senior IAS officer Sethi. Why Sethi is not appearing before the CBI? It proves that he is guilty and buying time to seek a legal remedy to avoid the arrest,” said a Youth Congress leader.

The central agency issued the notice to Sethi, a 1995-batch IAS officer serving as the principal secretary in the social security and empowerment of persons with disabilities department (SSEPD) and ST and SC development, minorities and backward classes department, on December 10. The notice came from the CBI’s New Delhi headquarters. Senior CBI officials on Monday arrived in Bhubaneswar, triggering speculation that Sethi may be grilled soon.

The CBI summons to the officer followed the arrest of three persons on December 7 in Bhubaneswar over the seizure of ₹10 lakh. The arrested persons included Chanchal Kumar Mukherjee, group general manager of the Central government PSU Bridge and Roof Construction Co (India) Ltd under the ministry of heavy industries, contractor Santosh Maharana and super-class contractor Debdatta Mahapatra. They have been taken on remand by the agency for interrogation. Sethi’s drivers are also under the CBI scanner and have been called by the agency as part of the investigation.

Sethi had allegedly assigned the projects to Chanchal Mukherjee’s company. The company executed the works through contractors.