The BJP on Sunday demanded a CBI probe into the murder of a party worker belonging to Ward-21 at Saliasahi here. Senior party leader Biswa Bhushan Harichandan told Press conference that Kalandi Behera was murdered on January 10, just 24 hours after the results of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation elections were announced.
Describing it as a political murder, he alleged that ruling BJD leaders were involved in the incident.
Harichandan said Kalandi his family members were given threat over mobile phone not to campaign on behalf of the BJP during the polls. The police also recovered the copy of an FIR written by Kalandi to the police from his pocket.
Harichandan apprehended that since BJD members were involved in the murder, the police under the pressure of the Government would never conduct an impartial inquiry into it. So, he demanded a CBI probe into the incident. The police are trying to give the murder the colour of a suicide case, he alleged.
He also alleged widespread corruption, use of money and muscle power, misuse of Government machineries, manipulation of EVMs and distribution of liquor during elections for victory of BJD candidates in the BMC elections.
He said delimitation of wards to suit the ruling party and enlisting of names of outsiders in the voters’ list helped the BJD win the BMC election. Stating that thousands of people were deprived of exercising their franchise as their names appeared in the voters’ lists of some other wards. He and his family members were also victims of such irregularities, Harichandan said.
He also demanded a high-level impartial inquiry into the large-scale irregularities in the BMC elections to unearth the truth.