Odisha lawyer, son held for murder; their outfit also under scanner: Cops

BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha police on Thursday arrested a high court lawyer and his son on charges of abduction and murder of a man who was once an active member of Manavbadi Sangathan but lately started to distance himself from the group founded by the lawyer, a senior Odisha police officer said.

Manas Das, 51, and his son Manoranjan Das, 25, have been arrested for the murder of Satyabrata Nayak in Cuttack district’s Abhimanpur, inspector general (IG) of police, central range, Narasingha Bhol said.

The officer said there were other complaints against the lawyer as well, many of them accusing him of arm-twisting people to join the Manavbadi Sangathan, which he reportedly described as a rationalist organisation, and following its diktat. He barred them from cremating the dead and even stopped women from wearing bangles, Bhol said.

The senior police officer said most people hadn’t complained against him as his victims were already poor and marginalised. With the lawyer and his son behind bars, police expect more people will come forward.

Satyabrata Nayak, the man who was murdered on August 1, was once a member of his organsiation but had started to move away. “On August 1 morning, a meeting was organised by some leaders of the organisation where Nayak was thrashed brutally… as he could not explain why his brother-inlaw did not attend a meeting in another village. The next day, Nayak’s nephew Basant was called to the neighbouring village of Karadagadia where his body was kept on the funeral pyre in a burial ground. Basant was then forced to light the funeral pyre of his uncle,” the IG said.

Das and his son also face charges in a second case in which an old man and his son were dragged out of their house and beaten mercilessly for not joining his organisation.

“His people literally forced people to follow his weird diktats and if anyone protested they were either ostracised or thrashed,” said the IG.