Banners with death threats to Congress MLA surface in Odisha
Bhubaneswar: Banners threatening veteran Odisha Congress leader Santosh Singh Saluja surfaced at Kantabanji town in Balangir district on Monday, in which some unknown person threatened to kill Saluja within 15 days.
“I will kill MLA Santosh Singh Saluja within 15 days,” read the message written in red ink on the banners.
The locals spotted two such banners put up at different places in Kantabanji town. The image of an unknown person has also been pasted on the banners. The police have launched an investigation after registering a case in this regard.
Expressing surprise over the development, the four-time Congress MLA from Kantabanji said that it is a matter of great regret and shock for him.
He reportedly came to know about the banners from news reports published on various media outlets on Monday.
“Even the ministers are not safe in the state. State minister Naba Das was murdered in January last year… And now banners have been pasted threatening to kill me with elections just round the corner.
“But I want to let them that Saluja will never stop working for the development of Kantabanji and Odisha. If they kill me, 100 more Saluja’s will come up. These are nothing but political conspiracies being hatched to demoralise me,” said Saluja.
Notably, in 2015, Saluja was attacked with sharp-edged weapons allegedly by his political opponents.
Some locals also suspect that Left Wing Extremists might be behind the incident as Kantabanji and Turekela areas of the district are known to be Maoist-affected areas.