Koraput freedom fighter laxmi Indira Panda's grandson Babula Panda, who was retrieved in a critical condition from a drain in Bhubaneswar on Thursday, is recuperating well at the SCB Medical College Hospital here and his condition on Friday was stated to be out of danger.
“He is out of danger and a team of very senior doctors of the hospital drawn from several departments are now treating him,” said Central Division RDC AB Ota, who visited Babula in the hospital to inquire about his health conditions.
The 30-year-old Babula had mysteriously disappeared after he and his parents were felicitated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Bhubaneswar on April 16.
Wishing to return home by their own arrangements, the trio reportedly asked the escort party to handover them the return fare (Rs 6,000) and drop them at the Bhubaneswar railway station so that they could go back to their home by train. Suspiciously, the trio got separated at the station.
While Babula's mother Sujata boarded a wrong train and was later rescued from Baleswa, his father Surendra returned home alone as Babula mysteriously disappeared from the station itself leaving his old parents to fend for themselves at a crowded place like a railway station.
The BJP alleged that a former Minister and a present Minister of the State were behind the disappearance of Babula. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had ordered DGP KB Singh to trace him. The DGP claimed that Babula has criminal antecedents.
“We received a call in the police control room informing that a person looking like Babula Panda was lying in a drain in an unconscious state. Then, the Mancheswar police rushed the spot to rescue him,” the DGP had said.
The BJP on Friday wished speedy recovery of Babula Panda. Party vice-president Samir Mohanty said police and the State Government connived to attack the BJP politically.
But it would boomerang now for them. Mohnaty said the Chief Minister had ordered the police to trace Babula. The police did not have any difficulty in tracing him; instead the DGP said Babula has criminal antecedents.
He alleged that the DGP is acting like a pawn of the ruling Government. The police have not brought former MlA of Jeypore Rabi Naryan Nanda into the purview of investigations though the victim's family has said that Nanda had given them Rs 50,000.
He questioned why the police are hesitant to scrutinise the call records and interrogate Nanda and Minister Pranab Prakash Das.