Odisha MLA Pradeep Maharathy has been arrested after he and his followers attacked a team from the Election Commission of India (ECI). Maharathy is the Biju Janata Dal’s (BJD) candidate for the Pipili constituency in Odisha’s assembly elections, which are being held concurrently with the ongoing Lok Sabha Polls.
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A flying squad that included a magistrate, a police official, and others was notified regarding alleged distribution of money and liquor to sway voters, and so traveled to Maharathy’s farmhouse in the Hunkeipur village near Pipili in the Puri district to investigate, The Hindu reported, adding that Maharathy’s followers assaulted them as soon as they entered the farmhouse. Rabi Naryayan Patra, the magistrate heading the flying squad, told reporters, “Mr. Maharathy himself rushed towards us and was seen directing his followers to attack us. We were severely beaten and had to flee from the spot”. Per PTI, Patra, who has been admitted to the Capital Hospital, said, “As soon as we reached there, Pradeep Maharathy started hurling abuses and later attacked me and my team”. The Hindustan Times reported that Patra said the team feared for their lives; “We had to flee leaving one of our vehicles on the spot. Had we stayed any longer we would have been killed,” he said.
Per The Hindu, Maharathy and his followers also destroyed the squad’s recording camera. Four other members of the team, including two videographers, were also injured, per the Hindustan Times.
The Hindu reported that Puri District Collector Jyoti Prasad Das and Superintendent of Police Umashankar Das went to Pipili to assess the situation on Sunday, April 21, and a formal complaint was filed at the Pipili Police Station on Monday, April 22. Maharathy was summoned to the police station for questioning, and then arrested, just a day before his constituency went to the polls. “We have enough grounds to arrest Mr. Maharathy,” SP Das told The Hindu.
Maharathy has been booked under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including section 307 (attempt to murder), section 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), section 339 (wrongful restraint), and section 146 (rioting), the Hindustan Times reported. He has also been charged under section 123 of the Representation of the People Act, which addresses “corrupt electoral practices”.
Prior to his arrest, Maharathy said on social media that people who were guarding his farmhouse erroneously assumed that the Election Commission flying squad were intruders, which resulted in the altercation, The Hindu reported.
Maharathy has previously been Odisha’s agriculture minister, but resigned in 2012 after he was he was accused of protecting suspects allegedly involved in gang-rape case in November 2011. He was reappointed as a minister when the BJD came in power in the state in 2014, but resigned again in January 2019, after saying the rape victim “has got justice” following the acquittal of two accused in the case.