“I have not been abducted. I have come to Bhubaneswar on my own will to meet the minister in connection with the developmental work in my panchayat”, Gouda told reporters in the state capital on Sunday.
Asked about the complaint lodged in the police station that he was abducted, Gouda said the allegation is wrong. “I have come to Bhubaneswar with other members of the panchayat. Some people are unnecessarily politicising the incident and trying to take political mileage by staging road blockade,” he claimed.
Meanwhile, demanding arrest of the accused who had abducted Gouda, the irate Congress members led by former Nabarangpur MP and senior Congress leader Pradip Majhi had staged a road blockade on Umerkote-Jharigan road disrupting vehicular traffic for several hours.
Notably, the wife of Gouda on Saturday had lodged a complaint with the Jharigan police about the abduction of her husband.
She had alleged that three persons had come to her house and took her husband with them on the pretext of attending a feast. Besides, when asked about the incident, she said she does not know the three persons who had taken her husband with them.
“My husband was in touch with me over phone up to Belagan where he was detained. Since then there is no contact with him as the abductors have not allowed him to talk to me”, she alleged.
The local police said that as per the statement of the father of Gouda, some BJD workers had forcibly taken his son to attend a feast.
On the contrary, when asked about the incident by our correspondent over phone, Commerce and Transport minister Ramesh Chandra Majhi had said Gouda has come to his official quarter in Bhubaneswar on his own will. “You can take his (Gouda) statement right now”, he added.
On the other hand, former Congress MP has made it clear that so long Gouda has not been released and the abductors are not arrested, the road blockade would continue.