Author: PNS
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: April 30, 2009
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/172965/Swami-murder-accused-claims-to-be-Cong-man.html
All those arrested on charge of killing Swami
Laxmanananda Saraswati were not Maoists. Though the police claimed that Maoists
eliminated the VHP leader in Kandhanmal, others arrested were not the Left-wing
ultras.
For instance, Gorakhnath Chalanseth, who was
brought to the court on Monday for trial, claimed that he was a Congress man.
Chalanseth, who is a former sarpanch of Kotgarh gram panchayat, also claimed
that he was active in the Congress till he was arrested. He was also elected
as a member in the Kotgarh Panchayat Samiti as a Congress candidate, he told
reporters.
While Chalanseth claimed that he belonged
to the Congress, no one from the party confirmed it. He further claimed that
his arrest was politically motivated.
"We are not Maoists. If you have evidence
to prove that we killed Swamiji, hang us," said another accused Bijay
Kumar Sanseth. Besides Buddhadev Naik, one of the seven accused arrested in
the Swami murder case, none have any crime records, they claimed. Apart from
Chalanseth and Bijay, others except Buddhadev claimed that they were innocent
and falsely implicated in the murder case as the police wanted to save their
face.
Meanwhile, the Crime Branch (CB) of the State
police which nabbed the seven persons in the case have already framed charges
against them. The CB claimed that it has specific evidence against each of
the accused put behind the bars since eight months after the killing of Swamiji.
