A day after the arrest of a key accused in the clash at proposed Posco steel plant site near here, CPI leader and former member of legislative assembly, Narayan Reddy, was held in connection with the violence that claimed one life.
Reddy was caught near Japa Square in Erasama area of Jagatsinghpur district in the wee hours, while he was trying to move out of the place, according to inspector Gupteswar Bhoi.
After being arrested, the anti-Posco leader was taken to Kujang police station amid tight security and then produced before a local court, which remanded him to judicial custody for two weeks, he said.
Reddy, against whom two FIRs were filed in connection with the December 14 violence that left D Swain dead and injured 25 others, had been camping in the area after the arrest of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti president Abhay Sahu about a month ago, sources said.
"I have been framed in a false case," Reddy said. With the arrest of the CPI leader, the number of people arrested in connection with the clash rose to seven. Meanwhile, the key accused in the clash, Bapi Sharkhel of Paradip Paribahan Company, who had been arrested from Chhattisgarh, was produced before a magistrate at Kujanga and sent to jail for 14 days, following the rejection of his bail application, they said.
Sharkhel was brought from Chhattisgarh to Kujanga by a special police team of Odisha. An FIR had been filed at the Kujang police station naming him as an accused in the December 14 clash between an anti-Posco brigade and people engaged by a contractor for construction of a coastal road to link Paradip and the mega steel project site. Police had earlier raided the office of Sharkel on the basis of the FIR.
Other cases were also pending against him in different police stations in Jagatsinghpur district, police said. The incident had sparked uproar in the state assembly.
Saying he was innocent, Sharkhel told reporters he had faith in chief minister Naveen Patnaik and the judicial system and hoped truth would finally come to light.
