Violence during anti-liquor protest: Bahinipati gets bail

Koraput: Senior Congress leader and Opposition chief whip Tara Prasad Bahinipati was granted conditional bail on Saturday by Jeypore SDJM court in connection with vandalism during an anti-liquor protest rally in Borigumma block of the district in March this year.

Bahinipati, who had applied for advance bail in the Orissa High Court after being named in the FIR lodged by the police, deposed before the SDJM court and surrendered. Along with Bahinipati, the police had registered cases against 30 others for destroying a distillery and looting its equipment during the anti-liquor rally.

On March 10, leading a rally of hundreds of protesters, the Congress legislator marched from Borigumma to old Borigumma. Bahinipati addressed a public meeting where party workers and leaders from Jeypore and Borigumma blocks were present.

After the meeting, the people led by Bahinipati moved towards a country liquor manufacturing unit. They were obstructed by police suspecting trouble. But the mob didn’t respond to the police and rushed toward the distillery and pulled down the structure.

The mob then destroyed the equipment used for distillation and also torched the raw materials.