The arrest of the self-styled ‘Guruji’ of controversy-ridden ‘Manababad Sangathan’, Manas Das has triggered a political slugfest in Odisha with the Opposition parties on Friday accusing the State government of playing vote bank politics.
The Opposition BJP and Congress party, which suspect links between the BJD and the arrested accused, alleged the ruling party was trying to draw political mileage through the arrest of Manas Das.
“The State government had full knowledge of the atrocities committed by Manas Das on innocent tribal people. He has been torturing people for a long time. Unfortunately, the government had not taken any action against him for long. It was only after the media highlighted his illegal activities, the police decided to arrest him,” alleged BJP MLA Nauri Nayak.
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Congress MLA Suresh Routray said, “The government got Manas Das arrested to grab votes. Otherwise, he would not have been arrested. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik as well as 5T Secretary VK Pandian are very cleaver. They planned to garner more votes of people by getting Manas arrested.”
Reacting to the allegations, government Chief Whip Pramila Mallick said, “As complaints were lodged against Manas Das, police conducted inquiry and took action against him accordingly. For BJD, the people of Odisha are our vote bank.”
Asked about sharing of dais by the accused with many leaders of the ruling party, she said, “People click photographs of party leaders when they visit any area. We cannot stop people from doing that.”
It is noted that chief of Manababad Sangathan, Manas Das was arrested along with his son Manoranjan on Thursday after a string of allegations of serious crimes including murder, attempt to murder, threats, loot and brutally surfaced against him. The father-son duo has been sent to judicial custody.
The Khordha police is planning to take the pair on remand to question them further in connection with allegations of murder and torture tribal people.