Bhubaneswar, July 1: The Bhubaneswar Commissionerate Police on Tuesday arrested Sanjeev Mishra and Sachikanth Swain, two more individuals accused in the recent assault on Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) Additional Commissioner Ratnakar Sahoo. Their arrests follow the detention of three others—Jeevan Rout, Rashmi Ranjan Mohapatra, and Debashis Pradhan—bringing the total number of arrests to five.
Police sources confirmed that several suspects remain at large, and efforts are underway to locate and apprehend them.
In response to the incident, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi assured representatives of the Odisha Administrative Service (OAS) Association of firm action. “No culprit will be spared,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the Odisha unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has suspended five members allegedly involved in the violence that erupted at the BMC office on Monday. According to a party statement, state BJP president Manmohan Samal has suspended Corporator Aparup Narayan Raut, Rashmi Ranjan Mohapatra, Debashis Pradhan, Sachikanth Swain, and Sanjeev Mishra from the party’s primary membership.
The incident has triggered sharp political backlash, with opposition Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leaders strongly condemning the attack. Former Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik expressed shock over the “brutal assault” and posted a video on X (formerly Twitter), purportedly showing the officer being dragged from his office and kicked in the presence of a BJP Corporator linked to a defeated party candidate.
The BJD has launched city-wide protests demanding justice for the assaulted officer, as political and administrative pressure continues to mount on the state government.
