The 12-hour dawn-to-dusk Koraput Bandh call given by the Congress in protest against the attack on the relatives of former party MlA Tara Prasad Bahinipati paralysed normal life across the district on Saturday.
All Government offices and trading establishments remained closed while vehicular traffic came to a standstill during the bandh. Congress workers staged road blockade at several places of Jeypore town and picketed in front of the local police station demanding immediate arrest of the miscreants.
It may be mentioned that the brother and nephew of senior Bahinipati, who was the Congress Assembly candidate for Jeypore in the April 10 elections, were stabbed with sharp weapons by a group of local BJD activists in a hotel room on late Thursday night. Tara Bahinipati’s brother Tuna Bahinipati and nephew Gupta Prasad Mohapatra were seriously injured.
Bahinipati has accused Minister and his BJD contestant in Jeypore Rabinarayan Nanda and his son of masterminding the attack. However, Nanda has stoutly denied these allegations.A case has been registered against eight persons in connection with the incident and the police are trying to nab them, SDPO Jeypore PK Senapati said.
The two seriously injured, who were admitted to the Jeypore sub divisional hospital earlier, were later shifted to a private hospital at Vishakhapatnam after their conditions deteriorated.