Nearly one lakh lawyers from all the 154 bar associations across the State, including that of the Odisha High Court here, on Monday abstained from work and staged demonstrations demanding immediate suspension and arrest of former Kendrapada SP Satish Gajbhiye.
Gajbhiye had been seen beating innocent public mercilessly and forcing many to kneel down and do sit-ups holding their ears on road.
“The SP had singled out an agitating lawyer, who happens to be the district president of a national political party and forced him to do sit-ups holding his ears, on the road,” said a lawyer, adding that the same IPS officer has had a very poor career record during his postings in the State inviting trouble for himself, the force, Government and people in general.
After going through a report of the High Court Bar Association's fact-finding team, the apex lawyers' body in the State on Monday evening decided to continue their agitation till August 14 and urged all the bars in the State to intensify the stir. Earlier in the morning, a five-member team led by HC Bar Association president Dr Ashok Mohapatra had visited Kendrapada to gather relevant facts from the local bar.
“We strongly condemn the brutal assault of the police, particularly of the former district SP, who behaved in the most barbaric manner while handling the Kendrapada situation last week,” said HC Bar Association secretary Bijay Kumar Ragad, adding that the lawyers would continue to agitate until stringent action is taken against the erring IPS officer.
The Kendrapada Bar Association has in the meantime decided to file two FIRs against Gajbhiye, who has been shunted from the district and dumped as an officer without duty in the police headquarters in Cuttack, informed Ragad.
He said one of the complaints would be against Gajbhiye's highhandedness and the other would be to recover cost from him for the loss of public properties caused due to his actions.
Meanwhile, the Crime Branch has reportedly stumbled upon shady bank transactions and illegal property deals by self-styled godman Sarathi Baba alias Santosh Raul while interrogating him for the second consecutive day here on Monday.
According to a senior police officer, the investigating team has detected at least ten bank accounts operated by Raul and all the accounts are in the name of either his close associates or a trust he had formed in the name of his adopted son Satyam.
“Crores of money has been transacted through these accounts during the past three years and one such account currently has a balance of over Rs 1.62 crore,” said a source.
The sleuths have also detected at least eight landed properties with buildings in the name of the trust in Kendrapada, Puri and Bhubaneswar and the ashram in which Raul has built a huge temple occupies an area of more than two acres.
Sources further disclosed that Raul is also being quizzed to establish his links with chit fund companies. In another related development, another Crime Branch team led by a woman officer on Monday went to the house of the 24-year-old girl at Paradip to record her statements.
The girl, a medico of the SCB Medical College, is alleged to have had links with Raul and had reportedly accompanied him on a trip to Hyderabad.