BJP demands Bhubaneswar mayor's removal, calls bandh

Intensifying its attack on Bhubaneswar Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena over a sex clip purportedly featuring him, BJP today demanded his resignation, and a CBI probe into the mysterious death of an engineering student, as it called 12-hour Bhubaneswar bandh on Wednesday.
The party activists organised a two-hour 'chakka jam' agitation in all the 102 municipalities and notified area councils in the state where they highlighted Jena's alleged link in the death of the engineering student Ashutosh Mohanty alias Rishi.
"A call was given for a 12-hour bandh in Bhubaneswar on December 21," BJP's Bhubaneswar district chief Harekrushna Khuntia said.
The shutdwon will exclude rail and other essential services, he said.

"We demand immediate intervention of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. He should order a probe into the murder and the video sex clip involving Bhuabneswar Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena. A forensic examination of the video clip should be done at a central laboratory," party's state general secretary Prithviraj Harichandan said.
If the government failed to meet its demand, the party would intensify agitation, he said.

"We will also soon hit the streets demanding the mayor's removal," state Congress vice-president Pradip Majhi said.
Meanwhile, members of Nari Surakshya Manch today met the DGP in Cuttack and demanded an impartial probe into the sex clip scandal.

A delegation of the civil society also submitted a memorandum to Odisha Governor seeking his intervention into the matter.