The Hindu : National : 4 held in VHP leader’s murder case

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Monday, Dec 15, 2008
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4 held in VHP leader’s murder case

Special Correspondent

BHUBANESWAR: The Crime Branch of the Orissa police on Sunday arrested four persons in connection with the murder of Viswha Hindu Parishad leader Lakshmanananda Saraswati.

The four, arrested from the Kotgarh area of Kandhamal district, include a hardcore Maoist. The three others were Maoist sympathisers, State Director General of Police Manmohan Praharaj told The Hindu.

He said 16 more persons detained in the case were being questioned. They hailed from Kotgarh and Chandrapur of neighbouring Rayagada district.

Hunt in difficult terrain

The police were taking the help of paramilitary forces in tracking the accused persons in the difficult forest terrain of Kandhamal and Rayagada.

The arrest of the four comes a day before the deadline given by the Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati Shradhanjali Samiti, an outfit of the Sangh Parivar.

The Samiti had announced last month that if the State government failed to arrest the killers of Lakshmanananda by December 15, it would observe a bandh across the State on December 25.

The Crime Branch arrested three suspected Maoists in the case in the first week of October. It is planning to file a charge sheet in the court shortly, while keeping the investigation open.

Murder sparks violence

The VHP leader was killed by a group of armed men, suspected to be Maoists, at the Jalespata ashram under Tumudibandha area of Kandhamal on August 23.

The murder led to widespread anti-Christian violence in Kandhamal and several other places in the State.

Around 40 people were killed and thousands of Christian homes and institutions attacked in Kandhamal, where communal violence continued for several weeks. A Catholic nun was paraded naked and raped.

Still in camps

While thousands of people belonging to the Christian community had left Kandhamal in the wake of the violence, more than 24,000 men and women had taken shelter in the relief camps within the district.

About 8,000 people are still living in the relief camps as the situation is yet to turn normal in the interior areas.

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