Odisha Police seeks five-day remand of Sura Baba, sons

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Sep 1:

The commissionerate police today appealed the court of Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) to take Sura Baba alias Surendranath Mishra, head of Jhinti Trahi Achtuta ashram, and his two sons on a five-day remand today for further interrogation.

The father and his two sons were sent to Jharpada jail after being produced in the junior magistrate first class (JMFC) court here on Monday evening.

They were detained by commissionerate police in the wee hours on Monday on the basis of an FIR lodged by activist Jayanta Kumar Bhoi at the Balipatna police station late last night. They were formally arrested at 10.30 am on Monday after being interrogated by a three-member team led by Bhubaneswar DCP Satyabrata Bhoi for about an hour.

While the commissionerate police did not move any remand petition in the court, the counsel for Sura Baba, Manmohan Panda, did not move any bail petition as the charges slapped against his client was not known.

The Baba and his two sons were lodged in the general prison ward of Jharpada jail last night.

While Sura Baba was lodged in cell number 11 of Block No-1 of the jail, his two sons were kept inside the cell no 12 and 13 of Block No-3.

The trio was offered bread and dalma in the night and provided with two carpets each to sleep.

In the meanwhile, situation at the Jhinti Trahi Achyut ashram is limping back to normalcy with no untoward incidents reported so far.

The police, with the help of the locals have formed a peace committee to restore  normalcy in the area.

To ensure law and order, 13 platoons of armed police forced have been deployed in and around the ashram premises.

In another development, Jyoshnarani Pradhan, a woman, who had lodged a complaint against Sura Baba at Balipatna police station yesterday, arrived at the commissionerate office building here to meet the police commissioner.