Naba Das murder: BJP questions appointment of retired judge to monitor Crime Branch probe

Senior BJP leader Pitambar Acharya on Tuesday tore into the Odisha government by claiming that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik doesn’t have faith on the Crime Branch which has been roped in to probe the sensational Naba Das murder case.

While addressing a presser, Archarya stated that as the state government doesn’t have faith on the Crime Branch, it wrote to the Orissa High Court to monitor the ongoing investigation. The state government should make the order of appointment of the retired judge public.

The senior BJP leader further stated that the appointment of retired High Court judge JP Das is illegal and questioned the basis on which the High Court’s monitoring committee was constituted. The Odisha government is using the High Court for its own purpose, alleged Acharya.

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“This is neither a judicial proceeding nor a consultation under the Judicial Commission Act. Why the state government should use the name of the High Court. Justice JP Das has not been judicially appointed to supervise a statutorily conducted police investigation,” said Acharya.

The senior BJP leader said Naba Das’ supporters and friends are discussing that some top leaders are behind the conspiracy. “Who are the conspirators and at what level the conspiracy has been hatched. Doesn’t the CM want to know about the conspiracy? We urge the CM to hand over the probe to a third party like CBI for transparency in investigation,” Acharya added.

Responding to the allegations levelled by the BJP leader, ruling BJD MLA, Prashant Muduli said, “The opposition has a habit of making such allegations. The society and democracy will not survive if they don't have faith on the judiciary.”

(Reported by Harihar Chand)