Senior BJP leader Biswa Bhusan Harichandan speaks to mediapersons at the state party office in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 13: The BJP today rejected the administrative probe ordered by the state government into the police firing at Chandpur in Nayagarh district on Thursday, which killed one person. The party demanded a judicial probe into the incident.

“The people of the state have lost faith on the state government, its officials and police. So we want a judicial probe by a retired high court judge,” said senior BJP leader and former law minister Biswa Bhusan Harichandan.

Yesterday, the state government had asked revenue divisional commissioner (central) S.K. Vasisth to probe into the circumstances leading to the police firing and submit his report within a month.

“It was unfortunate that the police, which has failed to arrest the murderers of a family in Sastri Nagar of Chandpur on September 6, fired at innocent people, who were demonstrating peacefully in front of the police outpost against the police inaction,” said the veteran leader, who had led a fact-finding team that visited the spot yesterday.

Harichandan criticised the government for deterioration of law and order in the state. “Chief minister Naveen Patnaik holds the home portfolio himself. If he fails to control law and order, he should step down.” However, BJD spokesman Amar Prasad Satpathy dismissed the demand for the chief minister’s resignation as “unjustified”.

“The chief minister has taken prompt action including ordering a probe by the revenue divisional commissioner and the crime branch. The SP has been transferred and the local inspector has been suspended. There is no need for a judicial probe,” he said.

Former local MLA Surama Padhy said: “The government has explained that the police was forced to fire in defence to save public life and property from violence and disperse the mob. But the government’s explanation was false because the victim, Pradip Behera, had bullet injuries in his head.”

Padhy said: “Instead of pacifying the demonstrators, the police tried to use brute force to silence their voice.”

The revenue divisional commissioner (central) S.K. Vasisth has begun his administrative probe. He quizzed the police officials of Chandpur outpost. A four-member crime branch team headed by a deputy superintendent of police today visited the village and spoke to the local people about the four murders that had led to the protest in the first place.