Damodar patronising criminals, says Bibhu Prasad Tarai

BHUBANESWAR: Senior Congress leader and former MP from Jagatsinghpur,

Bibhu Prasad Tarai

on Friday accused veteran BJD leader and ex-minister Damodar Rout of promoting hooliganism at Paradip. Rout is MLA of Paradip in

Jagatsinghpur district

.


Addressing media persons here, Tarai said the law and order situation at Paradip, a seaport town and industrial hub, worsened due to Rout’s alleged patronage to several criminals. “I have been receiving complaints from Paradip residents about unsafe conditions on streets. Extortion and firing offences have been occurring unabated. Police have turned a blind eye to the criminals because of their allegiance to Rout,” Tarai told journalists here.

Pramod Jena, another Congress leader from Paradip area, alleged that Rout nurtured Jyotikant Parida, alias Bapu, who was arrested by the special task force of Crime Branch for his alleged association with gangster Sayeed Usman Ali, alias Tito. A few days ago, Congress leader Bapi Sarkhel, who was earlier arrested in connection with killing of an employee of a stevedoring firm in Jagatsinghpur, had slammed Rout and accused him of being a close aide of Bapu.

Rout denied the charges and said people in Odisha very well know that some Congress leaders have been engineering crimes at Paradip. “Why should I react to baseless charges by persons like Tarai and Sarkhel? People know Sarkhel’s crime antecedents and his extortion activities,” Rout said.