Intervention of Prime Minister sought by Civil Society Groups for arrest of Satish Gajbhiye, controversial
IPS officer of Odisha and handing over
the case of his illegal accumulation of property to CBI
On 20.8.15, the Civil Society Groups of Odisha submitted
memorandum to Sri Narendra Modi, Prime
Minister of India seeking immediate intervention of the Central Government for taking drastic action against Sri Satish
Gajbhiye, IPS Officer, who assaulted, manhandled and mercilessly beaten up a
peaceful assembly of people including lawyers and journalists during their
protest against fraudulent God-Man Baba Sarathi in
Kendrapara of Odisha and his misdeed
of illegally acquiring huge land of Dalits and Govt. land in the name of her
wife Mrs. Ranjana Gajbhiye.
In
the memorandum, the members of Civil Society Groups have alleged that after the shocking and sensational
revelations about swindling, womanisation and
land-grabbing by the self-styled God-Man Baba Sarathi of Kendrapara
district, a vast crowd of common people
including concerned citizens and
intellectuals came out to the street on
5.8.15 to register their protest and raise their demand for an enquiry into
the whole episode. While the leaders of
ruling BJD remained mute spectators, the rank and file of all opposition
political parties along with Social
organisations staged a united protest demanding immediate arrest of Sarathi
Baba and a CBI enquiry into the whole lot of nefarious misdeeds of Sarathi Baba
and his collaborators within and outside Government. As days passed by with no
legal or administrative action taken by the State Government, thousands of
people to press for their demand resorted to
demonstration and rasta roko at Kendarapara. They also surrounded the Ashram and kept
raising slogans against the police protection given to Sarathi Baba. At this
moment Sri Satish Gajbhuye, Superintendent of Police, Kendrapara leading a huge
police force rushed to the place of mass protest himself and let loose a reign
of terror in the whole area to disperse the mob by indiscriminately lathicharging and
teargasing the protestors and heaping all sorts of inhuman brutalities on
them. Mr. Gajbhiye did all this simply
to protect any how the fraudster Godman from the natural wrath of people.
Bharatiya Janata Party gave a
call for Bandh in Kendrapara on 7.8.15 in protest against the highhanded action
of SP Sri Gajbhiye who had ordered the police force to employ all sorts of
brutalities to disperse the protesting crowd from the street and ensued a
classic road fighting between the
armless innocent people and the armed police force in Kendrapara town. In the
process the police injured hundreds of people, made many people kneel down on the
ground with their hands being tied to the back. The SP himself ruthlessly
misbehaved and physically assaulted Sri Duryodhan Sahu, a lawyer and President,
BJP District Unit using abusive
language which was incidentally telecast in TV Channels in real time.
The SP also threatened reporters of electronics media to leave Kendrapara at
once.
This incident evoked spontaneous response
from the people across the state to protest and demand immediate arrest of SP
Sri Gajbhuye. Sri Prasad Harichandan, President of Congress Party with his
entourage visited Kendrapara and condemned police attack and demanded high
level inquiry into this incident along with immediate arrest of the SP. Sri
Bijay Mohapatra, senior leader of BJP while addressing a press meet portrayed
the police action as Taliban terrorism and demanded arrest of SP and CBI
enquiry into whole incident. On 8th Aug, the Lawyers of different
Bars of the State not only condemned police atrocities but also demanded
immediate arrest of SP. The Orissa High
Court Bar Association along with other Bar Associations declared the suspension
of court till 14th August expressing solidarity with the people of
Kendrapara who were brutalised by the SP.
Being
pressurised by huge public protest, the State Govt. has suspended Satish
Gajbhiye on 13.8.15. But this move has not satisfied the public. The state-wide
movement and protest demanding arrest of Staish Gajbhiye is still going on. On
13.8.15, Bharatiya Janata Party organised demonstration in front of office of
Director General of Police, Cuttack demanding arrest of Satish Gajbhiye and CBI
inquiry into the whole episode. Congress
Party had also organised demonstration on 17.8.15 in front of Governor
House demanding arrest of Sri gajbhiye and CBI enquiry into the incident. The whole situation is still tense in the
state. Every day, there are Dharanas and rallies being held by different
organisations demanding arrest of SP across the state.
Going against the norms of All India Service
Conduct Rules, Sri Gajbhuye dares to publicise his utterly untenable opinions
in FACEBOOK and elsewhere justifying his attack on the people including
journalists and lawyers. He is also threatening the media houses to sue them by
filing defamation case against them.
In the meantime, the Civil Society Groups
have already exposed the fact of accumulation of huge landed property by Mr.
Gajbhiye in the name of his wife Mrs. Ranjan Gajbhiye in Gop
Block of Puri district along with
investment of crores of rupees for
commercial fishery by illegally acquiring around 22 acres of Gochara and
Anabadi land. It has also been alleged by the people that he had accumulated
huge money from fraudulent Chit fund Companies by invested his shares with them
and by giving them various illegal benefits. A few days back, he was
interrogated by the CBI for his link with Chit Fund Companies. On the land
illegally acquired by him in the name of his wife, he has started digging big
ponds for fishery cultivation with huge investment of more than 40 crores. So it is now evident that he has obtained
such spurious money from Chit Fund sources or from Baba Sarathi, for which the Civil Society Groups have demanded a
thorough going enquiry into Mr. Gajbhiye’s illicit connections. In the meantime, FIR has been lodged in Gop
police station on 19.8.15 against Satish Gajbhiye for his land grabbing through
illegal and fraudlent means in connivance of fraud chit fund brokers.
Ironically, without taking any action
against this officer, the State Govt. is trying to shield him by giving order
for enquiry one after another like Crime Branch enquiry, Vigilance enquiry and
RDC level enquiry with no results. The people of the state are getting
frustrated over the inaction of the Govt. and giving protection to a corrupt
officer.
The signatories of the memorandum
were Sri Pradip Pradhan, RTI Activist, Sri Sudhir Mohanty, advocate, Odisha
High Court, Sri Ashok Mallik, Dalit leader, Sri Pratap sahu, Basti Sangharsh Samiti,
Sri Sachikant Pradhan, Odisha Nagarik Samaj, Sri Abdul Walli, Bijay Parida,
Jana Adhikar Parishad, Ashok Das, Samajik Nyaya Andolan, Prativa Das, Woman
Activist and many others etc.
Pradip
Pradhan
M-9937843482
Date-21.8.15
