New Delhi: The Odisha government averted a massive state-wide strike by Odisha Administrative Service officers late on Monday after Chief Minister Mohan Charan Manjhi met senior officials to defuse tensions over the assault on Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation Additional Commissioner Ratnakar Sahoo.
Sahoo, an officer of the state cadre, was dragged from his office and beaten up by a group that allegedly included a local corporator linked to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, sparking widespread condemnation and outrage by the opposition Biju Janata Dal (BJD).
After issuing a call for mass leave, the Odisha Administrative Services (OAS) Association postponed the plan following the top-level meeting with Chief Minister and senior officers, including DGP Yogesh Bahadur Khurania, Chief Secretary Manoj Ahuja and Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Police Commissioner Suresh Dev Datta Singh.
The meeting coincided with the arrest of three accused linked to the case by the Bhubaneswar Police. Senior Odisha Police officials said that investigators had arrested three accused so far – Jeevan Rout, Rashmi Mahapatra and Debashis Pradhan. Rout is a BJP corporator from the 29th ward in Bhubaneshwar municipality.
Earlier in the day, as a video of the assault circulated widely, former Odisha chief minister and leader of the Opposition, Naveen Patnaik, attacked the Manjhi-led Odisha government and called for “exemplary action” against the culprits.
“Today, Shri Ratnakar Sahoo, OAS Additional Commissioner, BMC, a senior officer of the rank of Additional Secretary, was dragged from his office and brutally kicked and assaulted in front of a BJP Corporator, allegedly linked to a defeated BJP MLA Candidate,” Patnaik wrote on his X timeline.
“What is more appalling is that this happened in broad daylight, in the heart of the capital city- Bhubaneswar to a senior officer while he was in his office, hearing grievances of people,” he added.
“I ask @MohanMOdisha Ji to take immediate and exemplary action against not only those who perpetrated but more importantly, the political leaders who orchestrated and conspired in this shameful attack. The people named by the officer in his FIR have behaved like criminals. If a senior officer is not safe in his own office, then what law and order will ordinary citizens expect from the Government,” Patnaik said.
In his police complaint, Sahoo said he was assaulted at around 11.30 am on Monday while he was in a public grievance redressal meeting.
According to the complaint, six to seven unknown individuals entered the premises without authorisation and aggressively asked him about a phone call with BJP leader Jagannath Pradhan, who unsuccessfully contested the Bhubaneshwar Central assembly constituency in last year’s election.
Sahoo alleged that after he confirmed that he had spoken to Pradhan, the men started assaulting him without provocation. Jeevan Rout, corporator from ward number 29, was also present there, Saho alleged in the complaint.
“While I was trying to shield myself and plead for mercy, they threatened me and attempted to forcibly drag me into a vehicle, saying that I must come to Sri Jagannath Pradhan and apologise,” Sahoo alleged.
“This incident has caused me grave physical injuries, immense mental trauma, and has seriously disrupted the decorum and functioning of a government office. The criminal assault, intimidation, attempt to abduct, and public humiliation inflicted on me by these unknown individuals is a matter of utmost seriousness and demands immediate legal action,” he further alleged, seeking action in the matter.
The Bhubaneshwar Police Commissionerate registered FIR under sections 333 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint), 132 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 121(1) and 121(2) (voluntarily causing hurt or grievous hurt to deter a public servant from his duty),109 (attempt to murder), 351(2) (criminal intimidation), 62 (punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment), 140(2) (kidnapping or abduction for specific purposes, including murder or for ransom), 304 (snatching)and other relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita, Bhubaneswar–Cuttack Police Commissioner Suresh Dev Datta Singh told ThePrint.
Also read: Raided by vigilance sleuths, Odisha govt employee throws wads of cash out the window
‘No one is safe’
Bhubaneshwar Mayor Sulochna Das said that the nature of the offence – assault of a senior officer during grievance redressal hours, when 100 people were present – showed the seriousness of the nature of the crime.
However, she said that the main accused named by Additional Commissioner Sahoo, BJP leader Jagannath Pradhan, has still not come under the ambit of investigation.
“Sahoo has named Pradhan for his role in the case, but there is no action as such against him as of now, ” Das told ThePrint.
Invoking the latest case as an example, Das, a member of the BJD, alleged a deteriorating law and order situation throughout the state.
“If this is the situation of an Additional Commissioner rank officer in the state capital, one can imagine the state of law and order in other parts of the state. No one is safe now. The government has to take exemplary measures to make this case an example to stop these incidents in future,” Das added.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)