Naveen urges poll panel to take Khordha BJP leader’s murder seriously

Surjit Kumar Dhal,Bhubaneswar, April 15: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to take up the issue of murder of Khordha zone BJP leader Manguli Jena seriously.

“I urge the ECI to immediately direct the police to probe into the incident and initiate stringent action against those involved to ensure that no such recurrence of such heinous crime in future,” he told the media at Naveen Niwas here on Monday.

Naveen also condemned the incident on his official Twitter handle and expressed condolences to the bereaved family.

 “There is no place for violence in a democracy. I strongly condemn the incident in Khurda and express my deep condolence to the bereaved family,” the Chief Minister tweeted.

Expressing shock over the incident, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said: “We are all shattered to hear about the murder of one of our ablest party leaders of Khurda.”