Bhubaneswar: Bargarh police on Wednesday said three persons arrested for having fired bullets at the house of a BJP leader at Bijepur on Sunday night had no political links.

Bargarh police superintendent B. Jugal Kishore said: "The persons, who have been arrested are criminals. Earlier, the police had filed a number of number of cases for their criminal activities."

However, the BJP was annoyed with the police move to downplay the issue. The BJP also demanded a CBI probe into the incident and announced to organise two-day foot march on the issue in Bijepur Assembly constituency.

On Sunday night, unknown criminals fired three shots at the house of local BJP leader Manoranjan Meher. The BJP leaders alleged that labour minister Susant Singh had masterminded the firing.

State BJP on Wednesday targeted the SP and asked him not to be a puppet in the hand of the BJD spokesperson. "The police should not be subservient to the BJD. He should be loyal to the people and not take a partisan attitude while maintaining law and order in the state. They are getting salary from the state's exchequer," said BJP spokesperson Sajjan Sharma.

"We have the information that the two accused, Md Arshad and Sushant Bhoi, who were arrested in the firing case, have links with the BJD." On Tuesday, the BJP also organised a state-wide agitation in protest against the firing.

They had also targeted chief minister Naveen Patnaik and Susanta Singh over the incident and burnt the effigies of Naveen and Singh, alleging that the attempt had been made to terrorise the people and the BJD's political opponents.

BJD spokesperson Pratap Deb said: "The BJP is too scared about the election result in Bijepur. They are finding it hard to create a base there. They are doing all political drama here with the help of media."