A commission probing the killing of Laxamananda Saraswati and the violence in Kandhamal, on November 5 exposed that RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal activists were allegedly involved in setting afire a police jeep and government offices during the bandh.
“I perceive that members of RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal were involved in setting fire to a police jeep and offices of the Revenue Inspector (RI) and Additional Tehsildar at Khajurpada in Kandhamal,” Gobind Chandra Sethi, Sub-divisional police officer (SDPO), Phulbani told Justice S.C Mohapatra during cross examination. Stating that the three outfits organised a bandh on August 25, 2008, two days after killing of Saraswati, he said, “Since the RSS, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal had given a bandh call, it was obvious that they torched police jeep and government offices.”
The SDPO, however, failed to name the Sangh Parivar members who set fire to the police jeep and government offices. The police officer also told the panel that two BJP leaders, then ministers Surama Padhy and Golak Bihari Nayak had visited the district during the bandh on August 25. “While returning to Khajuriapada after escorting the ministers, the miscreants set fire to my jeep,” he said, adding that the bandh organisers cleared road blockade for movement of the ministers’ vehicle.