Kendrapada: Dharmasala MLA Himanshu Sekhar Sahoo was allegedly attacked and his car vandalised by miscreants near Budha bridge in Jajpur district on Wednesday evening. The incident occurred while he was returning from a meeting with the deputy director of mines in Jajpur town.
Sahoo, who won the last election as an Independent candidate, accused senior BJD member Pranab Prakash Das of orchestrating the attack. The attackers also allegedly snatched his gold chain.
Dash denied any involvement in the incident and said, “I learned about it through media reports. I want to make it clear that neither I, my family nor our party believes in violence. Police must take action against the wrongdoers.”
Jajpur SP Yash Pratap Shrimal said, “Two platoons of police forces have been deployed and security has been tightened in the area. We will arrest all the accused soon.”
The attack comes two months after Sahoo urged chief minister Mohan Majhi to crack down on alleged illegal mining operations in the district. Following his complaint, authorities had recently conducted raids and shut down several illegal crusher units and stone quarries that violated the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, and Environment Protection Act, 1986.