Fasting accused in min attack case shifted to hospital

Bhubanananda Sadangi, a teacher at Pratap Purusottampur High School in Brahmagiri area of Puri district had launched the indefinite hunger strike, a prison official said.

"The charge has tarnished my image as a teacher. I want immediate release. I want to live with dignity," Sadangi said.

Claiming to be innocent, Sadangi wrote letters to the Puri district collector and the sub-divisional judicial magistrate (SDJM), Puri. "I have no link with the incident," he said in the letters.

Besides Sadangi, the police had also rounded up Balabhadra Bhoi alias Mahari on the charge of attacking Mohanty during a meeting before panchayat polls Puri district on January 30.

While Bhoi was arrested on the spot, police arrested Sadangi on January 31, police said. The school teacher had allegedly instigated Bhoi to launch an attack on the minister, police said.

Meanwhile, the condition of Mohanty, admitted at a private hospital here, remained stable. "The minister is under observation," hospital sources said.