Bhubaneswar: Former American President Ulysses S Grant had once said in a battle (political or otherwise), when you feel beaten, then attack continually to win back.
Seemingly, the opposition parties in Odisha have taken a leaf out of this famous American saying as they stepped up their onslaught on ruling BJD over the death of lady PEO Smitarani in State Assembly, especially when BJD is in a high, post historic Bijepur win.
What comes in handy for the opposition is the involvement of a BJD functionary (hubby of BJD sarpanch), and the mysterious death trails, that too of a woman.
Moreover, the place of the incident, the guest house where the lady PEO was found dead, is itself mired in controversies. And when the controversy surrounding the land parcel type acquired for the guest house hinted at abuse of power and highhandedness, it made the ruling BJD a punch bag for the opposition.
The opposition derives the requisite ammo to fire at ruling BJD, when panchayat officials across the State took to the streets protesting and demanding security from the State government.
Also, opposition derived firepower from the statement of deceased PEO's father, Sadananda Biswal, that ‘’my daughter was killed’’. "The police and district administration are deliberately trying to hide the truth behind my daughter’s murder to save the accused involved in the crime," he alleged and rejected the MoS Home Dibyashankar Mishra's claim of suicide.
Under frontal attack from opposition, the ruling BJD put up a brave face and ruled out any foul play. The State government has rejected the opposition demand of CBI probe into the matter.
The MoS Home Dibya Shankar Mishra said in Assembly as the post-mortem report clearly mentioned 'asphyxiation as the cause of death, it is a case of suicide not murder. He added, "The accused Rakesh Bhadra has been arrested and the law will take its own course." Mishra hit back at the opposition charging them of playing cheap politics over a sensitive matter.
However, the opposition is not ready to buy the State government's argument. The main opposition party BJP to press its demand of registering the case under IPC section 302 (Murder charge) today staged a silent protest in the Assembly.
Party MLAs led by leader of opposition Pradipta Naik covered their mouths with black cloth to protest in Assembly against what he called the 'gagging of BJP's voice' on the Smitarani Biswal issue by ruling BJD.
Why the opposition is not in a mood to buy asphyxiation led death as suicide?
As per medico-legal experts asphyxiation-led death could be suicide or strangulation.
What is Asphyxiation? As per Department of legal medicine, Tokyo, Asphyxia is commonly defined as "a hypoxic state in the body" which is caused by any one of a wide range of events, starting from an insufficiency of atmospheric oxygen to a failure in oxygen uptake by the cells.
An analysis in Journal of Emergencies, Trauma, and Shock shows that asphyxia will take place either by strangulation or by hanging. Because, closure of blood vessels or air passages happen by external pressure in both cases.
Therefore, medico-legal experts are of the view that forensic evidence and analysis of time lapse before reporting of death in hospital prove crucial.
It's this grey area the opposition- BJP and Congress - are latching on to demand a CBI probe.