The vandalism of Ambabhona police station on Sunday evening by some miscreants seemed to have snowballed into a full-fledged political controversy after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress alleged that the BJD goons were involved in it while accusing police of shielding them.
On Tuesday morning, the Bargarh unit of the Congress party staged a demonstration in front of the SP office demanding the immediate arrest of the miscreants.
“It has been three days since some BJD goons vandalised the Ambabhona police station and no arrests have been made till now. It means two things. Either the Police are shielding those goons or the police have done something wrong in this case,” said Bargarh Congress president, Nihar Mahananda
“It seems Bargarh police is not working under the Home Department anymore. Rather the police are functioning as a wing of BJD,” Mahananda alleged.
It is pertinent to mention here that a team of police personnel raided a picnic party on Sunday acting on a tipoff about drug smuggling. But they could not get anything to establish the allegations. Thereafter, a heated argument ensued between the youths and the police. The two sides even came closer to a confrontation, sources said.
A few minutes later, those youths allegedly came to the police station and resorted to vandalism- broke tables, chairs and window panes, and later managed to escape.
While the police said that they have identified the miscreants and will arrest all of them soon, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleged that after the police left the place following the raid at the picnic party, BJD MLA Sushant Singh reached the spot. Then, his supporters were called in. Thereafter, they ransacked the police station in the presence of Singh.
Later, Sushant Singh denied the allegations by the BJP. In a video message, Singh said, “The BJP is targeting me without any reason. The entire fault is with the police. The irate mob left the place after I requested them to maintain peace. BJP is targeting me by labelling false allegations against me fearing their defeat in the next election.”
Meanwhile, the BJD unit at Bhatli in Bargarh alleged that the Ambabhona police had picked up some innocent people including an elderly man from the picnic spot and tortured them.
Protesting the alleged police excess, BJD workers blocked the Highway at Bhatli. They demanded the immediate release of the detainees at the police station.
On the other hand, the Minister of State, Home Department, Tusharkanti Behera feigned ignorance of the matter when asked about the vandalism in Ambabhona police station. “I do not have any information on the vandalism at any police station. I will be able to tell you something once I get information on this,” Behera said.