'Police forced me to put blame on MP Baijayant Panda'

Bhubaneswar: Sonalika Mohanty, who was detained on Thursday by police while attempting to stage dharna in front of the official residence of Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's private secretary VK Pandian, leveled serious allegations against police today stating that she was forced and even slapped to speak against Kendrapara MP Baijayant 'Jay' Panda.

Speaking at a press conference, Sonalika said that after repeated attempts to bring her problems to the notice of CM Naveen failed, she wanted to meet Pandian to help arrange a meeting with the CM. However, police detained her while she was on her way to Pandian's residence and took her to different police stations in Bhubaneswar before taking her to an unknown place in Cuttack where she was forced to speak against the Parliamentarian (Baijayant), she said.

"As protests at IMFA plant are going on, they forced me to say that I am doing this at the behest of Baijayant Panda and he has been sending money to my account. When I laughed and asked why they were dragging the MP into this, a senior police officer slapped me. Then they asked me to write all this in a plain sheet of paper and when I refused, they forcibly took my signatures in 10 plain sheets of paper," Sonalika added.

Police comments on the matter are yet to be received.

Earlier on Thursday, Sonalika was detained by police during an attempt to stage dharna in front of Pandian's official residence. It is worth mentioning that she has been claiming to be the wife of BJD’s Talcher MLA, Braja Kishore Pradhan and demanding justice alleging that the legislator is not accepting her.

She had filed a complaint against Pradhan at the Bhubaneswar SDJM court on May 27, 2017.