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Bhubaneswar ( Orissa) : Call it a great confrontation in Orissa Police Headquarters' with senior IPS officers are making diverse statements over the killing of Hindu seer Swami Laxmananda Saraswati and four of his disciples.
The tussle took a u-turn with present State police chief Manmohan Praharaj admitting that the slain seer had rivals but not from Maoists in Kandhamal, where he was gun down on August 23 last year. Praharaj was Director of Intelligence, when the murder took place.
Take the case of former DGP Gopal Chandra Nanda. Nanda was the Police chief, when the incident took place but he denied before the Justice Sarat Chandra Mohapatra Commission that the State Police had no information about the treat to Swamiji.
Supporting Nanda, two more IG Rank officers including IGP (Crime Branch) Arun Kumar Ray and then IGP (Law and Order) Pradeep Kapoor also took the same path. But the then Kandhamal SP, Nikhil Kanodia, who was placed under suspension following the murder, however had told the Commission that he had prior information on the Maoists' threat to Hindu seer.
"I was apprised of the information about Maoist's threat to the life of Saraswati on August 23, 2008, the day the seer was gunned down," the suspended IPS officer had told the Commission few weeks back.
Significantly, present DGP Praharaj, who then served Intelligence chief, told the Commission "He had some rivals. Those who had opposed his works were his rivals. But he had not been threatened by Maoists".
Reacting on it, Justice Mohapatra said the DGP's statement would give a lead to the entire investigation. "I have to find who the rivals of Saraswati were," he said.
"I have come across various reports from time to time relating to the staunch pro-Hindu activities of Saraswati," the former police chief had stated before the Commission.
"As a result of this, he had become target of the ire of the rival community since he had been opposing what he perceived as the increasing impact of Christian missionaries and alleged conversion in the area," Nanda had in his affidavit had stated before the commission.
