Bhubaneswar, Nov. 26: The Naveen Patnaik government today came under scathing attack in the Assembly for the death of two engineering students at Bolangir last month allegedly due to police atrocity.

Moving an adjournment notice, Opposition members dubbed Naveen a “student-killer” and demanded stern action against the erring police officers responsible for the loss of two lives.

Opposition Congress member S.S. Saluja alleged that Shakti Prasad Mohanty, an engineering student, was run over by a police van on October 24. The police subsequently beat another student, Sashikanta Panda, to death.

Saluja said that though some people had ransacked the Bolangir Town police station after Mohanty’s death in the road accident, the police caned innocent students and public who were protesting. Another student, Saroj Biswal sustained serious injuries and was rushed to the VSS Medical College and Hospital at Burla and later shifted to SCB Medical College at Cuttack in critical condition, said Saluja.

If this was not enough, the police framed as many as 27 innocent students and they were languishing in jail, he alleged.

These students have filled up examination forms from the jail, the Opposition members said, but if they were not released soon, these students would lose an academic year.

Supporting Saluja, Congress MLAs S.S. Bhoi, Anup Sai and Gobardhan Das alleged that a blind rule was going on in Orissa and if this continued, people would lose faith in the government.

Ruling BJD members Pravat Tripathy, Kalpataru Das, Arun Sahu and Niranjan Pujari, on the other hand, accused the local Congress leaders of inciting violence at Bolangir. Sahu claimed he had a compact disc containing evidence and it would be produced before the judicial commission.

Countering the Opposition’s charges, chief minister Naveen Patnaik said his government had taken prompt and appropriate action to bring the situation under control.

“The state director-general of police had rushed to the spot and the driver of the police van that caused the accident was arrested and suspended. The probe was handed over to state crime branch police. A judicial inquiry was also ordered,” he said.

“Stern action will be taken against those who will be found guilty in the judicial probe and crime branch investigation,” he assured.