Turmoil in Odisha assembly over dowry cases

Odisha assembly was today stalled over alleged involvement of an ex-minister and a senior IPS officer in separate dowry torture cases and frequent crimes against women with opposition Congress MLAs storming well leading to repeated adjournments.
Though question hour passed off peacefully, Congress members raised the issue as soon as zero hour began. They stormed into the well and tried to climb the Speaker's podium demanding a statement from Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
The opposition MLAs who had walked out of the assembly yesterday alleging protection to senior BJD leader Raghunath Mohanty, took up the issue again today with a senior UPS officer in the rank of an additional Director General of Police being named in another FIR.

Congress member S S Saluja demanded a statement from the Chief Minister on involvement of high profile persons in dowry torture cases," Saluja said.
Giving details about the FIR against ADG Gopabandhu Mallick, working in Odisha Human Rights Commission, Saluja said the IPS officer's sister-in-law had made charges against him. Gopabandhu was among the six accused persons in the FIR lodged by Santoshini Mallick, a mother of two daughters.
Saluja alleged that Santoshini was driven out by her in-laws for Rs 80,000 as dowry.

On crime against women, Saluja claimed at least 11,000 women have been raped or gangraped during the 13 year rule of Naveen atnaik. "As many as 359 women have been gang-raped in last five years," the Congress law maker alleged demanding reply from the home minister.

The opposition members rushed to well and shouted anti-government slogans and attempted to climb the Speaker's podium. Unable to run the house, Amat adjourned the house first till 12.45 and later till 3 pm. Normalcy returned in the house during post-lunch session.
This was the fifth consecutive day today when the opposition members raised crime against women issue stalling the proceedings.