Martyr’s kin breaks silence on Odisha MLA’s ‘misbehaviour’

Bhubaneswar: Couple of days after Cuttack-Barabati MLA Debashish Samantaray’s act of allegedly shoving uncle of a martyr CRPF jawan during cremation drew flak from various quarters, the concerned relative of the deceased trooper has come up with a clarification saying that the legislator did not misbehave with him.

“Before lighting the funeral pyre, we were told to wait till paying of floral tributes. As I went near the body, Debashish Babu only asked me to sit down. There is no need to criticise him (Debashish Samantaray) in this matter. He is a good and respected person. It is wrong to politicise the incident,” said Chaitanya Behera, uncle of martyr CRPF jawan Manoj Behera.

ଶୁଣନ୍ତୁ କଣ କହୁଛନ୍ତି, ସହୀଦଙ୍କ ଦାଦା । ଯାହାକୁ ଦୁର୍ବ୍ୟବହାର କରି ବିବାଦୀୟ ହୋଇଛନ୍ତି ଦେବାଶିଷ ସାମନ୍ତରାୟ #Odisha #Cuttack pic.twitter.com/hVt5b2rRVH

— Kanak News (@kanak_news) February 22, 2019

Few days ago, a video surfaced on social media in which the BJD MLA was seemingly forcing Chaitanya Behera to sit down at cremation ground near Ratanpur village in Nilai area of Cuttack district.

As the clip went viral on social media, Opposition Congress and BJP criticised Samantaray and demanded his arrest. The MLA later apologised and requested not to politicise the matter. He claimed that he had made the Pulwama terrorist attack martyr’s kin to sit down as the latter was pushing Union Minister Jual Oram during the presentation of guard of honour to the slain CRPF jawan.

On the other hand, women’s wing of the Cuttack city Congress today lodged an FIR against the legislator in this connection at the Badambadi police station demanding his arrest. A similar FIR was today filed at the Khandagiri police station here by one Subas Mahapatra.

BJD spokesperson Pratap Deb said Debashish Samantaray has already apologised after the incident and the party will take a call on the demand of action against him.