BJP workers were taken into custody after they broke police cordon and entered the collectorate on Wednesday protesting attack on Union Ministers Santosh Gangwar and Sadhvi Niranjan during their Bargarh visit on June 24. They also burnt an effigy of Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik inside the collectorate.
In the morning, the BJP workers came in a rally to the collectorate where the party leaders lashed out at the Bargarh administration and State Government for failing to take action against those involved in the attack. They said the attacks were ‘pre-planned’ and staged at the ‘behest’ of the Chief Minister. Earlier, BJP’s national secretary Suresh Pujari alleged that no action has been taken against those involved in the ‘murderous’ attack on the Union Ministers.
Later in the day, when the BJP workers tried to submit a memorandum addressed to Governor SC Jamir to Sambalpur Collector, police tried to stop them. This led to a scuffle between the police and the BJP workers. To restore law and order, police arrested the agitating BJP workers.
President of BJP’s Sambalpur unit Ram Chandra Meher said despite prior intimation, none of the senior officers of the administration was present inside the collectorate to receive the memorandum. The situation could have been averted had the Collector or his officers come to receive the memorandum, he added. The party workers demanded arrest of all those involved in attacks on the Union Ministers.
Similarly, the BJP workers staged a demonstration in front of collectorate in Bargarh and condemned the attack on Gangwar and Niranjan. They demanded immediate arrest of Bargarh MLA Debesh Acharya for his alleged involvement in the attack.
