Odisha government shielding accused in Mamita murder case, says BJP

BHUBANESWAR: BJP national general secretary and Odisha in-charge D Purandeswari on Wednesday accused the Naveen Patnaik government of shielding the culprits in the murder of Kalahandi schoolteacher Mamita Meher.
“The heinous crime won’t be acceptable in any civil society. Instead of taking strong action, the government is sheltering the criminals,” Purandeswari told a news conference in Bargarh, about 350km from here.
Two days after Naveen shared stage with minister of state for home Dibya Shankar Mishra, who is in the eye of opposition storm for his alleged link to the murder accused Gobinda Sahu, at a public meeting in Kalahandi, the BJP leader said, “The chief minister’s move shows the government is not unwilling to take action against the accused. The minister should be sacked immediately.”
The BJD reminded her about Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s advice not to politicise crimes against women. Reacting to Purandeswari’s charges, BJD spokesperson Shreemayee Mishra described it unfortunate that the Odisha BJP in-charge was politicising a heinous crime against a woman when Prime Minister Modi has appealed that crimes against women should not be politicised.
“We hope she will ask Odisha BJP leaders to respect the request made by the father of the victim to stop politicising this heinous crime and to refrain from character assassination of his daughter. She might be well aware that in other BJP-ruled states likes Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and even Delhi (where the police is under the Union home ministry), there have been several sensational cases of crimes against women which have led to an outcry at the national and international level. In such cases, the BJP had always professed that such crimes should not be politicised,” Shreemayee said.
The BJP workers held protests at different parts of the state. Congress workers, meanwhile, hurled eggs at sports minister Tusharkanti Behera’s car in Kalahandi demanding removal of Mishra from the council of ministers.
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