Berhampur, March 14: Ten Congress councillors today boycotted corporation's council meeting demanding their colleague R. Murali Mohan, who is in police custody, be allowed to attend it.

Murali Mohan has been in police custody since March 6 in connection with his alleged link with former Congress MLA Ramesh Jena.

Congress councillor B. Srinivas said Berhampur mayor K. Madhavi had turned down their demand to request the police to allow Murali Mohan to attend the council meeting today.

"Today's meeting was considered to be important as the drinking water problem and the budget were to be discussed. As the mayor did not pay heed to our request, we boycotted the meeting and held it at the Congress Bhavan," he said.

"The police have detained the councillor. We could have requested them to allow him to attend the council meeting. But, it needs sufficient time," said Madhavi.

Srinivas said: "Berhampur SP told us that they had detained Murali Mohan as a car, which was seized in connection with the case, belonged to Jena, showed his ownership. The police should either arrest him with specific charges or release him. If the police fail to take any urgent action, we will sit on a dharna in front of the inspector general of police's office from tomorrow."