Keonjhar: Uneasy calm prevailed across the mineral-rich hinterland of the district with reports of police initiating coercive action against cash-rich Champua MLA Sanatan Mahakud.
The police on Monday asked various nationalised and private sector banks to furnish accounts details of Mahakud. This comes a day after the police froze five bank accounts of Mahakud having total deposits worth Rs 165 crore.
The police ordered temporary freezing of the accounts under Section 102 of the CrPC. All five bank accounts operated by Mahakud were with Joda branch of IndusInd Bank. The police swung into action following interception of cash of Rs 50 lakh being transported illegally by the bank's branch manager Manas Rout and two other accomplices of the MLA on January 12. From the preliminary investigation, Keonjhar district police found that the money had been meant for distribution among agitators, mostly the MLA's supporters, for continuance of prolonged law and order disturbance, said Keonjhar superintendent of police Rajesh Pandit.
The sit-in and road blockade by Mahakud's supporters at Banajodi toll plaza complex, about 7km from the district headquarters township, has been going on for the past two months. The agitation has given rise to frequent law and order situation with the protesters frequently disrupting vehicular movement on the busy highway.
Makakud, widely regarded as one of the richest MLAs in the state, was a trade union leader before he had switched over to the business of transporting ores. Later, he plunged into politics and lost the Assembly polls in 2009. However, he had emerged victorious in 2014 from the Champua Assembly seat.
His assets had grown from Rs 3 crore in 2009 to Rs 51 crore in 2014 in five years according to the affidavits submitted by him to the Election Commission during 2009 and 2014 Assembly polls.
His rags to riches story and his grip in several areas in the iron-rich Keonjhar district have become a cause of concern for the BJD, BJP and the Congress. Activists of Sana Sena, an outfit floated by Mahakud's supporters, termed the coercive police action on their leader as an act of conspiracy hatched politically to defame him.
