The demand for arrest and dismissal of former Kendrapada SP Satish Kumar Gajbhiye intensified on Monday with the BJP beginning its campaign of registering FIRs in all 550 police stations and All Odisha lawyers' Association boycotting courts across the State.
Similarly, the Congress gheraoed the Kendrapada Collectorate demanding Gajbhiye's arrest. "We have submitted a memorandum in this regard. The Government should act against the IPS officer who does not have any respect for the rule of law," said party's legal cell head Dharanidhar Nayak.
According to reports, BJP activists have already filed FIRs at different police stations, including Malgodown PS in Cuttack city and in many police stations in Bhadrak, Nayagarh, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Dhenkanal, Brahmapur, Bhubaneswar and Puri districts.
lawyers boycotted courts in response to a call given by All Odisha lawyers Association to press for arrest and dismissal of Gajbhiye for his excesses on protestors in Kendrapada and a lawyer Duryodhan Sahu in particular, who was the BJP's Kendrapara district president. The High Court Bar Association has extended its support to the lawyers' agitation and has abstained from joining the court.
An eight-member fact-finding team of the High Court Bar Association visited Kendrapada and held a meeting with members of the Kendrapada Bar Associations on Monday. It was decided that the two lawyers, who were subjected to police excesses will file separate cases against Gajbhiye in court at Kendrapada. The team was likely to place its report at a meeting of the High Court Bar Association at Cuttack.
"He (Gajbhiye) has no right to stay in a civilised society and should be dispatched to Taliban territory in Afghanistan. He would soon realise who he has taken on," said Ashok Mohapatra, president of the High Court Bar Association and head of the delegation.
BJP leaders wanted to know why the Chief Minister is sitting silent over its allegation that the State Government was promoting the Sarathi Baba Ashram as a tourist destination and the BJD leaders have relationship with Baba.
Meanwhile, BJD spokesperson and Nimapada MlA Samir Das denied charges that the Government was protecting Gajbhiye.
Similarly, disapproving Gajbhiye Facebook post, which has now been removed, Das viewed that it constituted a violation of the service code of conduct. "He has obviously realised it and that is why he has now removed the post," Dash said, denying any BJD link with Sarathi Baba.