By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha Minister Dibya Shankar Mishra, who has been under scanner for past several weeks over the alleged murder of teacher of Sunshine Public School in Kalahandi, Mamita Meher , finally emerged from his hideout and issued a 2 pages statement claiming himself as innocent.
“However, I was shocked by the manner in which certain media have launched a malicious character assassination campaign based on falsehood against me. This has also hurt my family. Therefore, my family has filed criminal and civil defamation case against three media groups, namely ARGUS TV, OTV and ODISHA REPORTER for defaming and character assassination with false, malicious and wild allegations for furthering their narrow personal and political gains,” the Minister added.
The Minister Mishra’s family members have filed criminal cases and defamation suits against 3 pro- BJP TV channels including Baijayant Panda’s family run OTV and Odisha Reporter and Argus TV, also a righting TV Channel. Surprisingly, Minister Mishra kept mum on senior BJP leader Bijay Mohapatra’s outburst claiming a meeting hosted at Minister Mishra’s Raipur residence for a compromise. BJP leader Mohapatra had claimed that Minister of State for Home Mishra tried to iron out differences between the lady teacher Mamita Meher and her employer Gobinda Sahu at Raipur. “The Minister made an attempt at his Raipur residence to reach a compromise between the two. This has been informed by the police to the appropriate authority of the State government. The matter lingered on for nearly two months. Finally she was murdered,” Mohapatra had alleged.However, not a single word mentioned about Bijay Mohapatra’s allegation in Minister’s 2 pages clarification.
“I am deeply saddened and anguished by the unfortunate death of the lady teacher. I am a father and I can understand the trauma the family must be going through, My deepest condolences to the family of the teacher. The guilty must be given strictest punishment as per law,” the Minister said.“I would urge the opposition political parties and media, if you have an iota of evidence against me in this matter, then please take it to the police or the courts. I will not only resign from my position but will also retire from public life but don’t indulge in smear campaigns with personal political agenda,” he said.
“I have always believed that in sensitive heinous offences, law enforcement agencies should act in a free and fair manner so that the accused meet the ends of justice. Hence, I always avoided commenting on the heinous offence. But I felt the need to give a statement as this smear campaign has been affecting my family,” he said.The minister clarified that as an MLA and an ex-Air Force officer, he has attended functions at many educational institutions. “Therefore, a crime happening in any one of the institutions that I have visited as a guest for a function cannot be attributed to me,” he explained.
