Police on Wednesday arrested senior BJP leader, former Sambalpur MlA and former Minister Jayanarayan Mishra for violating the prohibitory orders clamped by the district administration to restrain the devotees not to display sharp weapons during the celebration of Hanuman Jayanti in Sambalpur on Tuesday.
Police later forwarded Mishra to court, which rejected his bail application and sent him to jail custody. Tension ran high at the court premises as Mishra’s supporters, while protesting his arrest, had a scuffle with the police.
Sambalpur SP Sushil Panigrahi on Wednesday said the police had registered two FIRs against Mishra at the Town police station and Dhanupalli police station for wielding a sword at a procession in violation of the prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC clamped by the administration. Mishra said in his reaction to the media, “We worship swords and other weapons during Durga Puja and Hanuman Jayanti. No one can stop us from doing this in a democratic country.”
There were special rituals in all temples of the city on Tuesday morning, after which devotees took out processions from several areas. The processions later reached the Hanuman temple at Brooks Hill. The devotees brought four swords from the temple. A youth handed over one of the swords to Mishra. At this, some police officers including SP Sushil Panigrahi tried to snatch the sword from Mishra. Enraged, Mishra had a scuffle with the SP who fell down in the process.
Mishra wielded the sword in the middle of the road for about five minutes as he was not permitted to do so inside the temple premises by the police. Armed with lathis and flags, several groups of devotees went round the city displaying martial art (Akhada) on the main road.
The procession later went to the Pira Baba Chhak. According to police, Mishra also wielded the sword at the place and threatened the Town PS IIC Pradip Sahu as the latter tried to restrain him. Police have video-recorded the entire proceedings of the procession. It may be recalled that during the Hanuman Jayanti in 2013 also Mishra had manhandled the then DSP, District Intelligence Bureau (DIB).