Citizen's body demand high-level inquiry into Kandhamal violence

Bhubaneswar, Sep 16 (UNI) A fact-finding team of concerned citizens today demanded that the Centre institute a high-level judicial inquiry into the communal violence in Kandhamal in the aftermath of the killing of VHP leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati.

The 13-member team, headed by Prof Manoranjan Mohanty, after visiting the trouble-torn district told newspersons here that the Union government should exercise its special power to order a judicial inquiry to find out the truth.

The team members alleged that the violence was pre-planned with a view to changing the village composition through religious cleansing and demanded the immediate arrest of perpetrators of the crime.

They also alleged that the violence occurred due to the negligence of the district administration and demanded that they be held responsible for dereliction of duty.

The other members of the team were Prof Amit Bhaduri, Ms Sagarika Chabbra, Dr Prakash Louis, Ms Guna, Sahil, Kalindi, Ms Seema Mustafa, Prof Kamal Mitra Chenoy, Mr Vincent Manoharan, Dr Prasad, Mr Rajesh Kumar and Mr Mohan.

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