Maheswar attacker on hunger strike in jail

PURI: Bhubanananda Sarangi, the headmaster of Pratap Purusottampur High School, has sat on a fast-unto-death in Puri District Jail protesting his arrest. He was arrested and sent to jail in connection with the attack on Panchayati Raj Minister Maheswar Mohanty on Sunday. The headmaster claimed he was framed as he is in no way linked to politics. He has stopped taking even water. In letters sent to collector and jailer, he said the humiliation in public inflicted on him by the police has shocked him to a great extent and he has no desire to live. Rabindranath Swain, the jailer, said, ‘’We are keeping a close watch on him and have informed about the development to all authorities concerned.’’Kaliprasad Sarangi, block Congress president and son of Bhubanananda, has also been named in the case. This apart, Purna Chandra Nanda, husband of Congress Zilla Parishad nominee Purnamasi Devi, and their son Kaliprasad Nanda,  ward member nominee Gangadhar Sahoo and Kanhu Jena of the party and Balabhadra Bhoi alias Mahara have been booked in the case on basis of a complaint lodged by Sriprakash Mishra. On Monday, police arrested the headmaster and forwarded him along with Mahara to the SDJM court. The court rejected their bail pleas and remanded them in 14-day judicial custody. Meanwhile, discontentment is brewing among the locals following the arrest of Bhubanananda, a popular man and a respected headmaster of the area.The district Congress is planning a mass agitation against what it claimed witch-hunts by the ruling BJD on family members of Congress nominees. Sarat Kumar Rath, DCC president, has demanded an impartial probe.