Odisha police firing: Congress demands judicial probe

Condemning the police firing at a village in Odisha's Nayagarh district that claimed one life as "brutal and undemocratic", the Congress today demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident. "A high-level judicial inquiry must be ordered into the police firing on innocent people who had gathered in their bid to get justice at Chandpur yesterday," Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Jaydev Jena told reporters here.

It was an undemocratic act on the part of the police to open fire on villagers who wanted concrete steps for arrest of culprits involved in the murder of four members of a family by unidentified assailants on Saturday, he said.

One person was killed and 17 others, including 15 security personnel, injured when police opened fire to disperse angry villagers demanding arrest of culprits attacked a police outpost in Odisha's Nayagarh district. "The innocent people were seeking justice, but police cracked down on them in a brutal manner killing one person and injuring several others," Jena said, adding, Congress demands a thorough judicial probe into the entire incident which showed police highhandedness to suppress people's voice. The incident showed that law and order situation in the state had crumbled, the Congress leader said.

Hitting out at Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for the incident, Jena said Patnaik is in charge of home department but police administration appeared to have clipped out of his control.